^v^-i  OF  pr;^ 

OCT  18  1919 
%OSICAL  Sl^# 


>-v 


Leonard,  Adna  Wright,  1874 
Evangelism  in  the  remaking 


i'l  c^      ^.Tn\-r   ■  r 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


THE  SHEPHERD  KING  12mo.  NET,  $1.00 


^fje   ^eto   €ra   Hectures^dip,   tHnibersfitp   of 
^outfjern  California— Jfirgt  ^eried 


Evangelism  in  the 
Remaking  of  the 


World         xC^'^^^^^^^«^ 

(       OCT  18  19 

By    ^:  '\~^-i^:>;i4LS^^^ 

ADNA  WRIGHT  LEONARD  ^^^--1-illiL — :::- 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
ADNA  WEIGHT  LEONARD 


To  My  Devoted  Wife 
MARY  L.  DAY 

WHOSE     SYMPATHETIC     INTEREST     AND     HELPFUL 

COUNSEL  HAVE   ENCOURAGED   ME  IN 

THIS   UNDERTAKING 


•  CONTENTS 

Cbiapteb  Paqb 

Foreword 9 

I.  The  Preacher  and  Evangelism.  13 

II.  Evangelism  and  Young  People.  43 

III.  Evangelism  in  Church  Music.  . .  69 

IV.  Evangelism  in  Social  Service.  .  101 

V.  Evangelism  in  the  Sunday  Night 

Service 135 

VI.  Safeguards  op  Evangelism 163 


FOREWORD 

In  the  early  part  of  1918  I  was  re- 
quested by  Dean  E.  A.  Healy,  of  the 
University  of  Southern  California,  to 
deliver  some  time  during  the  year  1919 
a  series  of  lectm^es  before  the  students 
of  the  Maclay  College  of  Theology. 
He  suggested  that  the  lectures  deal 
with  some  of  the  outstanding  problems 
of  evangeUsm  from  the  viewpoint  of 
the  pastor.  Upon  the  successful  com- 
pletion of  the  one-million-dollar  cam- 
paign for  endowment  and  equipment, 
in  the  spring  of  1918,  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  University,  on  the 
motion  of  President  G.  F.  Bovard, 
estabhshed  The  New  Era  Lectureship, 
and  requested  that  these  lectures  be 
given  as  the  first  series  of  the  new  foun- 
dation. The  lectures  were,  therefore, 
dehvered  before  the  students  of  the 
University  of  Southern  CaUfornia,  in- 


FOREWORD 

eluding  those  of  the  Maclay  College  of 
Theology,  February  24-28,  1919. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  lectures 
I  have  read  with  great  appreciation  and 
profit  much  of  the  literature  on  evan- 
gehsm,  regardless  of  denominational 
emphasis  and  viewpoint,  and  have  en- 
deavored to  discover  what  are  the 
fundamental  problems  of  evangelism. 
I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness 
to  all  those  great  souls  who,  realizing 
how  absolutely  important  it  is  that  the 
church  shall  be  definitely  evangelistic, 
have  endeavored  by  lectures  and  ad- 
dresses to  acquaint  Christian  ministers 
with  the  perils  that  threaten  the  church 
at  this  point.  In  their  emphasis  on 
social  service  large  numbers  of  preach- 
ers have  lost  the  evangelistic  note, 
while  all  too  often  those  who  place 
emphasis  on  evangehsm  seem  to  be 
utterly  oblivious  of  the  importance  of 
social  service.  I  have  especially  empha- 
sized the  doctrine  of  the  deity  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  fundamental  to  evangelism. 
10 


FOREWORD 

For  years  large  numbers  of  pastors  of 
the  evangelical  churches  have  lost  the 
positive  note  in  their  preaching.  One 
of  the  major  reasons  for  this  is  that 
many  have  been  influenced  by  German 
rationalism,  and  have  come  to  question 
the  divinity  of  our  Lord.  The  result 
is  the  Christ  of  the  Scriptures — ^the  his- 
torical divine  Christ — is  given  scant 
place  in  their  preaching. 

The  lectures  do  not  deal  specially 
with  plans  for  evangelistic  work,  but 
rather  with  that  which  is  of  greater  im- 
portance— the  stating  of  those  princi- 
ples that  are  fundamental  to  all  evan- 
gelism. I  am  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
these  lectures  come  far  short  of  being 
a  satisfactory  statement  of  this  most  im- 
portant subject,  but  they  represent  an 
earnest  endeavor  to  face  what  seem,  in 
my  opinion,  to  be  the  most  pressing 
problems  of  evangelism  from  the 
preacher's  standpoint. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  express  in 
words  my  high  appreciation  of  the 
11 


FOREWORD 

honor  conferred  upon  me  by  the  trustees 
of  the  University  of  Southern  Cahfor- 
nia  in  asking  me  to  give  the  first  series 
of  the  New  Era  Lectureship.  If  as  a 
result  of  this  effort  there  should  come 
to  anyone  a  clearer  vision  of  the  perils 
of  the  hour,  so  far  as  evangelism  is 
concerned,  and  if  it  should  be  in  the 
least  degree  the  cause  of  having  the 
church  face  more  seriously  and  cour- 
ageously the  vital  questions  that  are 
here  discussed,  the  effort  will  not  have 
been  in  vain. 

A.  W.  L. 


12 


THE  PREACHER  AND  EVAN- 
GELISM 


THE  PREACHER  AND  EVAN- 
GELISM 

The  true  minister  of  the  gospel 
realizes  that  his  supreme  business  is  to 
bring  men  and  women  to  a  saving 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  feels 
the  upward  thrust  of  that  inner  power 
which  will  not  let  him  rest  unless  he 
sees  men  and  women  accepting  Jesus 
Christ  as  their  personal  Saviour  from 
sin.  With  him  it  is  not  a  matter  of 
choosing  a  profession.  Reahzing  that 
he  has  been  chosen,  his  heart  cries  out 
to  God  constantly  that  he  may  be 
spared  from  becoming  a  professional 
minister. 

Unfortunately,  the  demands  made 
upon  the  modern  preacher  tend  to  pro- 
fessionahze  his  ministry.  He  feels  al- 
most irresistibly  the  pressure  of  insti- 
15 


V 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

tutionalism.  He  discovers  sooner  or 
later  that  he  is  embroiled  in  multitudi- 
nous activities  which  draw  his  energy 
and  thought  from  that  which  is  of 
supreme  importance. 

Some  time  ago  an  article  appeared 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  by  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Lewis,  entitled  "The  Professional 
^'  Ministry."  As  the  church  faces  the 
period  of  reconstruction  that  is  already 
at  hand,  this  article  might  be  reread  by 
Christian  people  with  great  profit.  The 
article  is  negative  in  that  the  writer 
contents  himself  with  pointing  out  that 
something  is  radically  wrong  with  the 
present-day  ministry.  He  observes 
that  modern  preaching  has  lost  its  pro- 
phetic character.  He  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  church  is  a  diminishing  and 
decaying  institution  from  which  power 
and  authority  in  the  world  are  swiftly 
passing.  He  says  there  is  some  "quality 
of  spirit"  lacking  and  that  church  life 
is  being  smothered  with  duties  which  do 
not  necessarily  require  any  special 
16 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

quality  of  religious  conscience  or  high 
spiritual  endowment.  He  tells  us  that 
the  church  is  more  concerned  with  or- 
ganization than  with  Hfe,  that  we  are 
laying  emphasis  on  money  instead  of 
upon  the  spirit  which  furnishes  in  love 
the  means  by  which  the  work  of  the 
church  is  maintained.  He  enumerates 
in  the  following  words  the  multitudi- 
nous activities  of  the  average  minister: 
"He  must  keep  the  people  together, 
shepherd  the  flock,  and  originate  new 
plans  which  will  be  hkely  to  attract 
others  from  outside;  he  must  visit  the 
homes  of  his  people  and  make  himself 
pleasant;  bring  around  the  disaffected, 
stimulate  the  slack;  stimulate  the  staff 
by  his  example;  attend  upon  the  sick; 
comfort  the  dying;  preside  over  all 
kinds  of  gatherings,  from  a  prayer 
meeting  to  a  pipe  parliament;  be  able 
to  speak  out  offhand  on  almost  every 
subject  under  the  sun;  take  several 
kinds  of  classes;  initiate  good  works; 
run  this  and  that  from  a  concert  to  a 
17 


^llfe^ 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

creche;  represent  his  congregation  in 
denominational  assemblies.  He  must 
be  a  preacher,  a  pastor,  the  secretary  of 
a  company,  the  managing  director  of 
a  thriving  business  and  (as  often  as 
not)  his  own  commercial  traveler  to 
boot.  In  addition  to  this,  he  must  keep 
up  a  style  consistent  with  his  position 
and  suffer  all  the  social  entanglements 
connected  therewith,  whether  he  Hkes  it 
or  not.  He  must  also  be  a  credit  to  his 
church  in  local  public  affairs." 

In  the  concluding  portion  of  the  ar- 
ticle, the  author  expresses  his  belief  that 
the  decline  in  the  church's  influence  will 
continue  as  long  as  she  kills  her 
prophets  by  making  them  subservient 
to  organization. 

More  recently  an  article  appeared  in 
the  Literary  Digest  entitled  "The  La- 
borer is  Worthy  of  His  Hire."  For 
months  after  this  article  was  pubhshed 
it  was  the  topic  of  conversation  in 
church  circles  everywhere.  So  timely 
and  of  such  constructive  value  was  it 
18 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

that  it  later  appeared  in  practically 
every  leading  publication  of  the  Prot- 
estant churches  of  America.  It  is  a 
powerful  and  convincing  appeal,  on  the 
ground  of  fair  play,  to  increase  the 
salaries  of  preachers. 

After  speaking  of  the  increased  cost 
of  living  and  of  the  fact  that  wage- 
earners  in  every  department  of  the  na- 
tion's work  have  been  demanding  more 
income,  and  that  their  demands  have 
been  recognized  as  just  and  necessary, 
the  writer  says : 

"Your  pastor  is  not  a  cheap  man  nor 
an  unskilled  laborer.  He  has  brought 
long,  careful  training  to  his  task.  He 
was  chosen  with  scrutinizing  care  as  to 
his  quahfications  and  he  is  being  meas- 
ured to-day  by  high  and  exacting  re- 
quirements in  the  performance  of  his 
work.  .  .  . 

"Set  down  on  paper  some  of  the 
qualities  and  duties  you  demand  of 
your  pastor,  and  then  judge  their 
value. 

19 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

"He  must  be  a  man  among  men,  a 
man  of  force,  tact,  and  agreeable  per- 
sonality, a  good  mixer,  a  man  of  knowl- 
edge, wisdom,  and  authority,  whose 
presence  commands  respect  and  whose 
word  carries  conviction.  He  must  be 
♦able  to  influence  men  and  women,  win 
their  confidence,  kindle  their  enthusi- 
asm, direct  their  energies,  and  organize 
their  working  powers.  He  must  be  full 
of  sympathy,  ready  with  consolation, 
a  strength  in  weakness,  a  bright  light 
in  times  of  darkness,  and  a  never-fail- 
ing source  of  inspiration  to  the  souls 
of  his  people.  You  expect  all  this  of 
him. 

Your  pastor,  also,  must  be  the  suc- 
cessful head  and  center  of  your  organ- 
ized church  activities,  business,  social, 
and  spiritual.  On  occasion,  or  as  a 
regular  part  of  his  task,  he  must  be  an 
expert  money-raiser.  You  engage  him 
as  your  chief  and  leader,  the  general 
manager  of  your  church,  if  not  its 
actual  creator  or  saviour  from  its  diffi- 
20 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

culties.  You  put  upon  him  a  burden 
and  a  responsibility  you  would  never 
dream  of  intrusting  to  any  cheap  man 
in  business." 

The  preacher  is  keenly  conscious  of 
all  this.  The  demands  of  the  people 
and  the  inadequate  support  he  receives 
make  it  exceedingly  difficult  for  him  to 
properly  emphasize  the  evangehstic  side 
of  his  ministry.  The  average  pastor 
knows  all  too  well  that  when  the  income 
of  the  church  begins  to  fall  away, 
whispers  soon  arise  as  to  whether  he  "is 
quite  the  right  man"  or,  perhaps,  that 
"he  has  finished  his  work  among  us." 
With  anguish  of  soul  he  observes  that 
at  the  official  board  meeting  finance 
occupies  the  major  portion  of  the  time. 
Seldom,  if  ever,  is  there  any  opportu- 
nity in  the  board  meeting  to  discuss  and 
pray  over  the  spiritual  problems  of  the 
church.  From  day  to  day  the  faithful 
pastor  endeavors  to  meet  the  multi- 
tudinous social  demands  that  are  made 
upon  him.  Right  bravely  he  responds 
21 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

to  the  numerous  calls  for  speeches,  lec- 
tures, and  addresses.  He  regards  it  as 
a  compliment  to  be  asked  to  do  such 
things,  and,  furthermore,  he  knows  that 
his  church  members  will  consider  him 
to  be  popular  or  unpopular  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  local  outside  en- 
gagements he  is  able  to  fill  and  whether 
or  not  the  community  can  say  of  him 
that  he  is  a  "good  mixer." 

Any  man  thus  driven  through  the 
week,  and  living  under  the  constancy 
of  such  pressure,  may  enter  the  pulpit 
on  Sunday,  and  he  may  talk,  expound, 
explain,  theologize,  and  argue,  but 
rarely,  if  ever,  will  he  really  preach.  It 
is  practically  an  impossibility  for  him  to 
do  so. 

The  supreme  mission  of  the  preacher 
is  to  persuade  men  and  women  to  ac- 
cept Jesus  Christ  as  their  personal 
Saviour,  and  to  build  up  believers  in 
the  most  holy  faith.  How  can  he  do 
this  effectively  if  his  time  and  strength 
are  spent  in  "running"  the  church 
22 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

machinery,  inventing  plans  for  the  rais- 
ing of  funds,  and  in  meeting  social  en- 
gagements? Shall  the  minister,  then, 
withdraw  from  the  life  of  the  day?  Is 
he  no  longer  to  live  among  folks  and 
brush  shoulders  with  his  fellow  men? 
Is  he  not  to  take  a  hand  in  helping  to 
solve  the  social  problems  and  in  bring- 
ing about  great  moral  reforms?  Is  the 
modern  preacher  in  the  reconstruction 
period  to  become  a  recluse,  a  hermit? 
By  no  means!  He  must  be  a  man 
among  men.  His  presence  and  influ- 
ence must  be  felt  wherever  there  is  hu- 
man need.  He  must  do  his  part  in  help- 
ing to  solve  the  problem  of  human  liv- 
ing together,  which  is  the  social  prob- 
lem. These  he  must  do,  but  not  to  the 
neglect  of  the  spiritual  needs  of  him- 
self and  his  people.  It  is  at  this  point 
that  large  numbers  of  preachers  are 
faiUng  to-day.  They  give  their  time 
and  effort  to  social  and  reform  matters 
to  the  exclusion  and  neglect  of  the 
spiritual  needs  of  their  people.  The 
23 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

note  of  personal  appeal  is  very  largely 
absent  from  their  preaching. 

Some  years  ago  I  asked  Gipsy  Smith 
what  in  his  mind  was  the  greatest  de- 
fect in  the  preaching  of  American  min- 
isters, and  he  answered  immediately, 
"The  American  preachers  have  lost 
their  power  of  appeal." 

The  question  before  us  is,  therefore. 
Can  the  modern  preacher,  in  view  of 
the  many  demands  of  a  social  and  finan- 
cial nature  that  are  made  on  him  by  the 
church  and  society,  be  successful  in 
carrying  out  an  evangehstic  program 
for  his  church? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer,  and 
that  is.  The  pastor  must  have  an  evan- 
gelistic program  at  whatever  cost.  He 
must  hold  himself  and  his  church  to  that 
and  adjust  other  matters  accordingly. 

The  preacher  who  is  really  fired  with 
a  holy  passion  for  the  salvation  of  men 
and  women  from  sin  will  not  be  blind 
to  nor  will  he  ignore  the  great  social 
and  reform  movements  of  the  com- 
24 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

munity  where  he  lives.  There  may  be 
weeks  and  even  months  when  he  will 
feel  justified  in  giving  most,  if  not  all, 
of  his  time  to  the  advancement  of  some 
special  reform  or  social  movement. 
When  that  is  done  and  he  has  given  to 
the  special  cause  all  the  time  and  effort 
that  may  reasonably  be  expected  of 
him,  he  should  not  forget  his  evan- 
gelistic mission.  This  is  not  a  plea  for 
any  special  kind  or  type  of  evangelistic 
effort.  It  is  not  a  plea  for  what  is 
known  as  the  **revival  service,"  al- 
though it  is  my  firm  conviction — and 
an  experience  of  many  years  in  the  pas- 
torate bears  out  the  statement — that 
any  pastor  may  have  a  "revival"  in  his 
church  when  both  himself  and  the  peo- 
ple are  willing  to  pay  the  price.  But 
call  it  by  whatever  name  you  please, 
"Revival,"  "Lenten  Services,"  "Special 
Meetings,"  "Meetings  for  the  Deepen- 
ing of  the  Spiritual  Life,"  etc.,  the 
name  is  of  little  consequence.  The  im- 
portant thing  is  whether  the  preacher 
25 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

knows  what  it  means  to  be  possessed  by 
the  sacrificial  spirit  of  the  Master.  It 
is  so  easy  for  the  preacher  to  become 
callous,  so  easy  for  him  to  become  pro- 
fessional. The  ideal  toward  which  the 
preacher  should  bend  the  entire  ener- 
gies of  his  soul  is  that  of  bringing  his 
own  church  to  a  standard  of  continuous 
evangelism  with  himself  as  the  evan- 
gehst.  Let  no  one  deceive  himself  by 
thinking  that  this  can  be  accomplished 
merely  by  organization  and  newspaper 
publicity.  Organization  is  important, 
and  a  certain  amount  of  newspaper 
publicity  and  other  advertising  may  be 
perfectly  legitimate,  possibly  essential; 
but  to  place  too  much  reliance  on  these 
things  is  utterly  wrong.  The  preacher 
deals  with  spiritual  forces  and  he  who 
would  carry  out  a  program  of  continu- 
ous evangelism  in  his  church  will  sooner 
or  later  discover  that  he  has  set  himself 
to  one  of  the  biggest  tasks  that  possibly 
can  engage  his  mind  and  heart. 

Reference  already  has  been  made  to 
26 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a 
modern  preacher  doing  the  very  work 
he  has  been  called  to  do.  There  are 
other  hindrances  to  evangelism,  as 
every  pastor  knows.  I  refer  to  the 
widespread  materialistic  spirit,  the 
critical  temper,  and  the  very  marked 
social  unrest.  A  great  wave  of  prac- 
tical materiaUsm  has  swept  over  our  age 
like  a  giant  tidal  wave.  By  this  is  not 
meant  a  philosophic  materialism,  but 
the  materialism  that  expresses  itself  in 
the  form  of  commercialism  and  the 
mere  love  of  pleasure.  As  a  result  of 
the  critical  temper  of  the  age,  old 
creeds  have  been  dissolved  in  many 
minds  and  a  vital  faith  has  not  yet 
taken  definite  and  positive  form.  In 
addition  to  all  this,  the  social  unrest  that 
is  literally  shaking  the  world,  and  the 
spirit  of  organized  labor  that  is  not 
only  indifferent  to  the  church  but  fre- 
quently hostile  to  it,  present  problems 
to  the  modern  preacher  of  which  the 
fathers  had  no  conception. 
27 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Notwithstanding  these  things,  evan- 
gelism is  possible,  yea,  it  is  absolutely- 
essential,  if  the  church  is  to  measure  up 
to  that  which  God  requires  of  her. 
Paul  said,  "I  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ  which  strengtheneth  me." 

Concerning  this  statement  by  the 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  who  knew  the 
meaning  of  preaching  the  gospel  under 
very  adverse  circumstances,  J.  H. 
Jowett  has  said:  "The  strength  was 
transmitted  to  him.  There  was  a  great 
power  house,  and  the  energy  was  con- 
veyed to  him  as  a  humble  receiver.  But 
it  was  more  than  a  transmission.  *Him 
strengthening  me.'  At  either  end  there 
is  a  person,  and  a  power  passes  from 
one  to  the  other.  It  is  not  that  at  one 
end  there  is  a  great  historic  hero,  a 
supreme  example  in  a  great  gallery  of 
heroes,  and  at  the  other  end  a  living, 
contemporary  with  searching  and  im- 
mediate need.  No,  at  either  end  there 
is  a  living  soul,  and  the  apostle  Paul  is 
dealing  with  a  living  conmiunicative 
28 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

energizing  Christ.  Paul  drew  his  sap, 
his  spiritual  force,  the  power  which 
made  him  effective,  out  of  a  hving  fel- 
lowship with  the  living  Christ  of  God." 
If  the  modern  preacher  is  to  be  in 
the  best  sense  of  the  term  an  evangehst 
among  the  people  whom  he  serves,  he 
must  know  Jesus  Christ  to  be  his  per- 
sonal Saviour  from  sin.  His  faith  in 
him  as  Saviour  must  be  absolute.  Not 
the  Christ  that  some  are  to-day  pro- 
claiming, but  the  Christ  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  Christ  of  prophecy,  the  Christ 
of  the  cross,  "the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth."  The 
preacher  who  doubts  the  deityship  of 
Jesus  Christ  may  preach  scholarly  ser- 
mons, may  be  a  very  eloquent  and 
learned  man,  may  be  in  close  touch  with 
all  the  social  movements  of  the  day,  but 
he  will  never  be  a  soul-winner.  In  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  he  cannot  be. 
What  the  world  needs  most  to-day  is 
a  fresh  emphasis  upon  the  fact  of  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.  No  other  gos- 
29 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

pel  will  meet  the  demands  of  the  recon- 
struction period.  The  storm  center  is 
Jesus  Christ.  The  words  of  Dale  writ- 
ten years  ago  have  not  lost  their  mean- 
ing in  this  new  day.  "The  storm  has 
moved  round  the  whole  horizon,  but  it 
is  rapidly  concentrating  its  strength  and 
fury  above  one  sacred  Head.  This, 
this  is  the  real  issue  of  the  fight — Is 
Christendom  to  believe  in  Christ  any 
longer  or  no?  It  is  a  battle  in  which 
everything  is  to  be  lost  or  won.  It  is 
not  a  theory  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
which  is  in  danger,  it  is  not  a  theological 
system,  it  is  not  a  creed,  it  is  not  the 
Old  Testament  or  the  New,  but  the 
claim  of  Christ  himself  to  be  the  Son 
of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  mankind. 
This  is  surely  enough  to  stir  the  church 
to  vehement  enthusiasm  and  to  inspire 
it  with  its  old  heroic  energy.  It  is  a 
controversy,  not  for  theologians  merely, 
but  for  every  man  who  has  seen  the  face 
of  Christ,  and  can  bear  personal  testi- 
mony of  his  power  and  glory." 
30 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

That  is  the  secret,  for  only  the 
preacher  who  "can  bear  personal  testi- 
mony of  His  power  and  glory"  can  ex- 
pect to  bring  about  a  spiritual  crisis  in 
other  men's  lives  whereby  they  shall 
come  to  know  him  also  as  Lord  and 
personal  Saviour.  The  work  of  Cal- 
vary must  be  proclaimed  by  those  who 
from  personal  experience  can  say,  "I 
know  whom  I  have  beheved." 

In  all  of  this  we  are  assured  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  will  take  the  things  of 
Christ  and  make  them  real  not  only  to 
us  as  preachers,  but  also  to  those  for 
whose  salvation  we  labor.  But  it  is 
everlastingly  true  that  unless  the 
preacher  is  himself  living  the  absolutely 
surrendered  life,  he  can  never  become 
the  apostle  of  surrender  to  others. 

The  preacher  must  know  his  Bible, 
Paul  wrote  to  Timothy,  "All  scripture 
is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness: that  the  man  of  God  may  be  per- 
31 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

feet"  (English  Revised  Version,  "fur- 
nished completely  unto  every  good 
work").  The  preacher  who  does  not 
know  his  Bible  cannot  be  "furnished 
completely."  There  are  large  numbers 
of  ministers  of  the  gospel  whose  knowl- 
edge of  the  Word  of  God  is  compara- 
tively meager.  They  fail  to  make  the 
Bible  first  in  their  studies,  and  their 
sermons  show  it.  How  can  the  preacher 
comply  with  the  admonition  of  the 
Master  to  Peter,  "Feed  my  sheep," 
unless  he  himself  feeds  in  green  pas- 
tures and  beside  still  waters?  Some 
men  are  clever  and  have  a  reputation 
for  making  striking  statements.  They 
are  very  well  versed  in  the  poets  and  are 
"up  to  date"  so  far  as  current  litera- 
ture is  concerned.  They  crowd  their 
churches  by  announcing  sensational  and 
sometimes  irreverent  themes.  As  a 
rule,  their  day  is  a  short  one,  for  they 
soon  "wear  out."  The  people  need  the 
gospel  of  comfort,  of  sympathy,  and  of 
love. 

32 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

People  need  to  be  aroused  concern- 
ing the  fact  of  sin,  and  the  Christ  of 
God  must  be  presented  to  them  in  love. 
They  must  be  led  to  see  that  he  is  their 
hope  and  their  salvation.  In  order  to 
do  this  the  minister  must  know  his 
Bible.  Whatever  may  be  our  theory 
of  inspiration,  God  has  appointed  the 
Bible  as  the  one  book  a  man  must  know 
if  he  is  to  be  a  successful  winner  of 
souls.  The  centuries  of  the  Christian 
Church  furnish  ample  proof  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  statement.  Those  who 
have  moved  men  mightily  by  their 
preaching  have  been  without  exception 
men  whose  hves  were  hterally  saturated 
with  the  Word  of  God.  He  who  would 
bring  men  and  women  to  saving  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ  must  be  able  to  use  the 
Bible  as  a  skilled  workman  uses  his 
tools.  Jesus  said,  "The  seed  is  the 
word  of  God";  and  Peter  said,  "Hav- 
ing been  begotten  again,  not  of  cor- 
ruptible seed,  but  of  incorruptible, 
through  the  Word  of  God,  which  liveth 
33 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

and  abideth."  In  James  we  read:  "Of 
his  own  will  begat  he  us  with  the  word 
of  truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of 
firstfruits  of  his  creatures."  Again  in 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  the 
same  truth  is  declared:  "In  whom  ye 
also  trusted,  after  that  ye  heard  the 
word  of  truth,  the  gospel  of  your  salva- 
tion." 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many 
passages  of  Scripture  which  declare 
that  it  is  the  word  received  into  the 
heart — that  is,  the  word  believed — 
through  which  the  spiritual  change  we 
call  conversion  is  brought  about.  We 
cannot  sufficiently  exalt  the  hfe-giving 
power  of  the  word. 

That  which  rescued  the  church  from 
the  negations  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury was  not  philosophy  or  learning, 
but,  rather,  the  tides  of  spiritual  re- 
vival that  swept  over  Britain  and  other 
lands,  as  a  result  of  the  Wesleyan  re- 
vival. The  preaching  of  that  move- 
ment was  eminently  biblical.  The  Bible 
34 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

was  the  one  authority  for  the  preach- 
er's message,  and  in  the  wake  of  that 
God-inspired  movement  a  new  hfe  was 
breathed  into  society  and  a  new  day 
dawned  upon  the  world.  Evangehsm 
won  the  victory  over  indifference  and 
unbeHef,  and  it  is  to  evangehsm  we 
must  look  for  still  greater  victories  in 
the  days  that  lie  just  ahead. 

The  preacher  must  he  a  man  of 
prayer.  This  is  his  strong  fortress.  By 
it  he  can  break  down  the  materialistic 
spirit,  overcome  the  prevailing  critical 
temper,  and  lead  his  people  into  the 
most  definite  kind  of  sacrificial  service. 
Prayer  is  the  secret  of  the  expanding 
life.  The  more  prayerful  the  preacher 
is,  the  more  powerful  he  will  be  in  his 
preaching  and  the  more  effective  he  will 
be  in  personal  work.  His  whole  life 
must  be  a  prayer,  and  if  it  is  not,  his 
preaching  will  reveal  the  fact.  With- 
out exception  the  successful  soul-winner 
is  a  man  of  prayer.  He  knows  what  it 
means  to  agonize  for  the  conversion  of 
35 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

definite  men  and  women.  Jesus 
"offered  up  prayers  and  supplications 
with  strong  crying  and  tears,"  and 
Paul  said,  "I  would  have  you  know 
how  greatly  I  agonize  for  you."  The 
Saviour  prayed  "with  strong  crying 
and  tears,"  and  Paul,  the  apostle, 
"agonized"  in  intercession.  "True  in- 
tercession," says  Jowett,  "is  a  sacrifice, 
a  bleeding  sacrifice,  a  perpetuation  of 
Calvary,  a  'filling  up'  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ." 

Charles  G.  Finney  knew  the  mean- 
ing and  importance  of  intercessory 
prayer,  for  he  is  said  to  have  asked  his 
host  on  one  occasion  to  permit  him  to 
sleep  in  the  barn  rather  than  in  a  com- 
fortable bed.  The  request  being 
granted,  he  was  seen  to  climb  up  into 
the  haymow,  where  he  spent  the  night 
in  prayer  for  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
the  services  he  was  to  begin  the  next 
day. 

When  Dwight  L.  Moody  was  con- 
ducting those  great  meetings  in  the 
36 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Hippodrome  in  New  York,  he  could 
scarcely  wait  until  the  service  was  dis- 
missed because  of  his  eagerness  to  pray 
with  individuals  in  the  inquiry  room. 

That  great  soul-winner  George 
Macgregor  stated  that  there  was  prob- 
ably not  an  hour  of  any  day  the  last 
years  of  his  life  when  a  passion  for  souls 
did  not  present  itself  consciously  and 
consumingly  to  his  heart. 

When  we  think  of  these  prayer-war- 
riors, and  how  intercessory  prayer 
bulked  so  large  in  their  lives,  we  dis- 
cover the  more  readily  the  weakness  of 
our  efforts  to  bring  men  and  women  to 
a  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Do  we  really  know  what  it  means  to 
"agonize"  as  did  the  apostle  Paul  for 
the  salvation  of  men?  If  we  know  noth- 
ing of  this  experience,  neither  shall  we 
know  the  joy  of  soul-winning. 

As  the  church  faces  the  conditions  of 
this  new  day,  what  is  to  be  the  outstand- 
ing characteristic  of  her  message?  If 
she  is  true,  her  message  will  be,  "For 
37 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life,"  and  her  ministers 
will  be  flaming  heralds  of  the  divine 
truth. 

The  following  letter  was  received  by 
Bishop  W.  F.  McDowell  from  a  friend 
serving  as  a  chaplain  somewhere  in 
France,  and  states  at  once  the  problem 
and  the  task  before  us  in  the  new  day 
of  reconstruction: 

"My  fourteen-year-old  son  in  select- 
ing a  Christmas  gift  for  me  chose  your 
Yale  Lectures.  The  very  virtue  of 
them  makes  them  painful  reading  here 
where  almost  every  sight  and  sound 
bears  witness  to  the  bitter  estrange- 
ment of  man  from  man. 

"But  even  more  terrible  than  this 
estrangement  is  the  fact  that  it  hardly 
enters  into  the  minds  of  the  millions  of 
soldiers  here  high  and  low  that  the  root 
of  it  all  lies  in  man's  estrangement  from 
God.  And  the  matter  looks  worse  still 
38 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

when  we  ask  why  they  do  not  think  of 
this.  It  is  the  whole  business  of  the 
church  to  bring  men  to  see  the  import- 
ance of  reconcihation  with  God.  Why 
has  the  church  not  done  it? 

"The  equipment  with  which  the 
church  fits  men  out  is  being  put  to  the 
test  here  in  France.  I  have  had  con- 
tact with  a  good  many  trained  under 
highly  favorable  circumstances  in  our 
Protestant  churches.  I  would  not  say 
that  their  lives  are  not  profoundly  in- 
fluenced by  their  training,  but  if  recon- 
ciliation with  God  as  a  conscious  ex- 
perience is  to  be  accepted  as  the  test 
of  that  training,  it  has  proved  very  de- 
ficient. What  strikes  one  is  the  serious 
lack  of  any  clear  and  definite  religious 
conceptions  in  the  minds  of  these  young 
men  that  are  powerful  enough  to  create 
any  sense  of  loyalty  to  Christ  and  the 
church  or  to  produce  any  adequate  ap- 
preciation of  the  importance  of  these 
things. 

"Why  has  the  church  failed  in  this? 
39 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

How  is  the  failure  to  be  corrected? 
Our  pastors  are  busy  with  frantic 
efforts  to  get  people  in  the  church, 
whether  they  are  well  trained  or  not, 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  demands  which 
laymen  make  for  a  showing.  The 
churches  are  busy  with  raising  great 
funds  for  endowments,  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  the  Red 
Cross,  and  other  objects,  and  danger- 
ously honoring  rich  people  as  a  part  of 
the  process.  We  are  busy  with  pro- 
grams, but  down  at  the  root  of  it  all 
we  are  not  making  reconciliation  with 
God  a  real  thing  to  the  children  in  our 
Sunday  schools  and  the  congregations 
in  our  churches.  A  harking  back  to 
the  methods  of  the  past  will  not  do. 
What  are  we  to  do?  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  German  ambitions 
be  curbed  at  whatever  cost.  But  that 
will  not  bring  peace.  Only  reconcilia- 
tion with  God  will  do  that.  Only  the 
church  has  the  power  to  mediate  that 
reconciliation.  Will  it  ?" 
40 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

May  God  help  the  ministry  so  to 
present  Christ  to  men  that  they  will  be 
reconciled  with  God.  This  is  the  mis- 
sion of  the  church.  This  is  the  preach- 
er's high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus. 


41 


II 

EVANGELISM    AND    YOUNG 
PEOPLE 


II 


EVANGELISM    AND     YOUNG 
PEOPLE 

It  has  been  said  that  youth  is  "a 
wide,  deep  river,  dividing  childhood 
from  manhood;  a  river  which,  Hke  the 
river  of  death,  must  be  crossed  without 
bridge  or  boat ;  through  which  each  soul 
must  go;  into  whose  turbid  waters  the 
child  must  descend  alone,  knowing  well 
that  beneath  their  flood  his  childhood 
will  be  buried  to  rise  no  more ;  a  stream 
both  broad  and  turbulent,  not  to  be 
crossed  in  a  day  or  a  year ;  whose  buoy- 
ant waters  will  indeed  bear  him  up, 
but  not  without  his  efforts;  whose  cur- 
rents will  land  him  somewhere  on  the 
other  shore,  but,  O,  so  far  down  stream, 
on  the  dusty  plains  of  sordid,  sinful 
manhood,  far  out  of  sight  of  those  green 
45 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

hills  of  childhood  that  were  so  near  to 
heaven." 

This  figure  pictures  to  us  that  period 
of  our  own  lives  when  we  were  between 
child  and  man.  It  was  the  period  of 
restlessness  and  uncertainty.  Nothing 
seemed  to  be  fixed  and  stable.  If  our 
little  craft  was  fastened  to  a  mooring 
one  day,  it  was  caught  by  unexpected 
and  irresistible  currents  the  next  and 
we  were  carried  far  downstream.  We 
comprehended  so  little  and  yet  we  lived 
in  a  state  of  constant  expectancy.  We 
had  our  times  of  exhilaration  and  also 
those  of  humiliation  and  disappoint- 
ment. We  reahzed  that  we  were  caught 
in  the  great  rush  of  life,  eager  to  sup- 
port ourselves  and  to  be  free  from 
others'  control,  having  visions  of  the 
long  road  that  stretched  out  before  us, 
although  having  no  idea  of  what  was  at 
the  other  end. 

Youth  is  an  unexplored  continent 
and  few  there  be  who  can  penetrate  its 
jungles,  follow  its  trails,  and  discover 
46 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

its  secrets.  We  have  come  that  way 
ourselves,  and  yet  how  easily  we  forget 
and  how  stupid  we  are.  We  all  love 
children,  but  do  we  all  love  youth? 
This  question  can  be  answered  more 
affirmatively  to-day  than  ever  before, 
for  the  church  is  beginning  to  know 
youth  better  than  in  former  years,  and 
to  know  youth  is  to  love  youth  with  a 
full  heart.  Earnest  souls  are  studying 
the  mind  and  spirit  of  youth  to-day  with 
a  sympathy  and  zeal  that  are  worthy  of 
the  highest  commendation.  The  rise 
of  young  people's  organizations  within 
the  church  is  bringing  about  a  better 
understanding  of  the  special  problems 
and  essential  needs  of  the  young  peo- 
ple who  are  passing  through  the  forma- 
tive period  of  adolescence. 

Youth  is  the  character-forming 
period  of  hfe,  and  the  character-form- 
ing processes  go  hand  in  hand  with  the 
transformation  of  the  body  of  the  child 
into  that  of  a  man.  It  requires  not  less 
than  ten  or  twelve  years  for  the  physical 
47 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

processes  to  be  completed,  and  while 
those  processes  are  going  on,  the  mind 
and  spirit  are  being  most  powerfully- 
affected.  This  development  with  girls 
is  generally  more  rapid  than  with  boys. 
This  is  the  period  when  there  is  a 
noticeable  independence  of  thought,  a 
disposition  to  be  a;rgumentative,  and 
when  there  is  an  emotional  awakening. 
In  his  book  on  Educational  Evan- 
gelism, Charles  E.  McKinley  says:  "In 
the  transformation  of  the  child  into  the 
man  there  are  three  things  to  be  done. 
We  observe,  accordingly,  three  acts  in 
the  drama  of  youth.  They  correspond 
also  in  a  general  way  with  the  three 
periods  of  adolescence.  The  dramatic 
action  of  the  first  period  centers  in  the 
youth's  achievement  of  his  personal 
freedom;  in  the  second,  in  his  discovery 
of  life ;  in  the  third,  in  his  incorporation, 
as  a  distinct  individual,  into  the  social 
body.  The  first  step  to  a  sympathetic 
understanding  of  youth  is  an  intelli- 
gent acquaintance  with  the  necessary 
48 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

dramatic  action  within  the  spirit  by 
which  these  successive  objects  are  at- 
tained." 

What  are  the  circumstances  and 
methods  through  which  and  by  which 
we  are  to  arrive  at  the  place  of  a  sym- 
pathetic and  inteUigent  understanding 
of  youth?  It  will  be  readily  admitted 
that  the  great  problem  is  to  bring  the 
independent  self-assertive  will  of  youth 
to  the  place  where  it  will  be  reconciled 
to  the  divine  will.  As  the  prodigal 
came  to  it  by  way  of  reconciliation  with 
his  father,  so  must  youth  by  way  of 
reconciliation  with  the  heavenly  Father. 

The  Catholic  Church  beheves  that 
this  is  accomplished  by  the  Spirit  at  the 
time  of  baptism,  administered  by  the 
priest.  This  church  teaches  that  there 
is  a  sacramental  grace  bestowed  in  this 
rite,  which  when  performed  results  in 
the  regeneration  of  the  individual.  The 
reformed  churches  radically  modified 
this  view  by  placing  the  emphasis  not  so 
much  upon  the  sacramental  rite  as  upon 
49 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

the  truth  contained  in  the  creed  and 
catechism.  Among  Protestants  this 
emphasis  became  general,  and  it  was 
taught  that  the  regeneration  of  the  soul 
was  brought  about  by  the  acceptance 
of  the  truth  contained  in  the  great  series 
of  confessions  and  catechisms. 

The  eighteenth  century  witnessed  a 
radical  departure  from  either  of  the 
above  named  points  of  emphasis.  It 
was  brought  about  by  what  is  known  as 
the  Wesleyan  revival.  This  movement 
placed  supreme  emphasis  upon  the 
office  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in 
convincing  men  of  sin  and  in  making 
real  to  them  the  things  of  Christ. 
Under  this  teaching  men  came  to  see 
that  regeneration  involved  a  complete 
change.  It  involved  a  change  of  one's 
sentiments,  tastes,  and  desires.  Old 
things  passed  away  and  all  things  be- 
came new.  Under  that  teaching  the 
affections  and  emotions  were  stirred, 
the  awfulness  of  sin  was  revealed,  and 
the  deityship  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
50 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

saving  grace  were  magnified.  This 
teaching  marked  the  greatest  revival 
period  in  history. 

Of  late  years  increasing  emphasis  has 
been  placed  by  many  upon  what  has 
come  to  be  known  as  educational  evan- 
gelism. Horace  Bushnell,  in  his  book 
on  Christian  Nurture,  struck  the  key- 
note of  this  latest  movement  in  evan- 
gelism. The  chief  point  of  emphasis 
in  this  movement  may  be  expressed  in 
these  words — "Growth,  not  conver- 
sion." In  other  words,  according  to 
this  theory,  men  are  to  become  Chris- 
tian by  a  process  of  growth  rather  than 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  moving  upon  their 
minds  and  hearts  and  leading  them  to 
repentance.  Vast  numbers  of  people 
have  been  misled  by  this  attractive  but 
nevertheless  dangerous  teaching.  Of 
course  no  one  will  depreciate  the  value 
of  hereditary  influences,  environment, 
ideals,  atmosphere,  spirit,  etc.,  but  we 
miss  that  which  is  the  most  vital  thing, 
when  we  say  that  these  are  sufficient. 
51 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Christian  character  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  being  born  in  a  Christian 
home.  We  all  know  those  who  were 
born  of  Christian  parents  but  whose 
lives  are  anything  but  Christian.  They 
had  all  the  advantages  of  heredity,  cul- 
ture, and  environment,  and  yet  they  are 
far  removed  in  life  and  practice  from 
the  ideals  of  the  Christian  home  in  which 
they  were  born  and  reared. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover, 
the  theory  of  educational  evangelism 
makes  no  provision  for  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  conversion.  The  glar- 
ing defect  in  all  such  teaching  is  that 
there  is  no  place  for  a  spiritual  crisis. 
This  I  hold  to  be  absolutely  essential 
and  positively  biblical.  It  does  not 
matter  how  favorable  may  have  been 
the  accident  of  birth,  nor  how  morally 
clean  and  pure  the  life  has  been,  every 
one  must  come  to  the  place  where  he 
consciously  and  purposely  turns  away 
from  the  sin  and  evil  of  the  world  and 
accepts  Jesus  Christ  as  his  personal 
52 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Saviour.  Modern  Sunday  school  liter- 
ature is  frequently  lame  at  this  point. 
Too  much  of  it  lacks  the  positive  note 
in  matters  relating  to  the  supernatural. 
"Educational  evangelism"  is  stressed 
again  and  again  at  the  expense  of  defi- 
nite and  positive  conversion. 

In  working  among  young  people,  the 
goal  of  all  our  efforts  should  be  that  of 
bringing  about  a  spiritual  crisis  in  their 
lives  that  will  result  in  their  acceptance 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  personal  Saviour. 
Everything  is  tested  right  here — faith, 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  tact,  temper, 
policy,  plans,  all  that  we  are  comes 
under  the  acid  test  at  this  point.  Who 
has  not  longed  to  be  able  to  bring  young 
people  to  an  immediate  acceptance  of 
Christ?  Preachers,  Sunday  school 
teachers,  Epworth  Leaguers,  and 
Christian  workers  in  general  have  ear- 
nestly prayed  that  they  be  given  that 
power  by  which  they  could  become  suc- 
cessful in  persuading  others  to  sur- 
render their  Hves  to  Christ.  This  leads 
53 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

to  the  question,  what  are  the  prime 
requisites  for  successful  evangelistic 
work  among  young  people? 

First  of  all,  the  man  who  would  seek 
to  save  others  must  know  Christ  to  be 
his  personal  Saviour.  In  this  matter 
there  must  be  no  sham.  There  is  no 
class  of  persons  anywhere  in  the  world 
that  more  quickly  detects  the  false  note 
than  young  people.  If  it  is  in  the  ser- 
mon, they  will  find  it  out.  If  it  is  in 
the  life  of  the  Sunday  school  teacher, 
they  are  not  slow  in  discovering  it.  If 
a  man's  life  does  not  support  his  pro- 
fession, then  any  attempts  he  may  make 
to  win  them  to  Christ  will  fail.  When 
young  people  find  out  that  the  person 
who  is  interesting  himself  in  their  spirit- 
ual welfare  is  living  a  consistent  Chris- 
tian life  they  will  usually  give  him  a 
listening  ear.  Absolute  sincerity  and 
an  absence  of  all  that  savors  of  arti- 
ficiality is  the  demand  made  upon 
Christians  by  the  youth  of  to-day. 

In  the  second  place.  Christian 
54 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

workers  must  gain  the  confidence  of 
those  whom  they  would  win  for  Christ. 
This  is  not  always  an  easy  thing  to  do. 
God  has  blessed  some  with  a  personality 
that  is  unusually  attractive.  It  is  not 
so  difficult  for  them  to  get  close  to 
young  people.  They  are  eagerly 
sought  by  the  young,  and  are  not  in 
conversation  very  long  with  them  be- 
fore they  have  secured  their  confidence 
to  an  unusual  degree.  This  confiden- 
tial relation  once  established  sweeps 
out  of  the  way  many  obstacles  that 
would  bulk  large  under  other  con- 
ditions. Young  people  know  who  are 
really  their  friends.  Their  difficulties, 
temptations,  and  sorrows  are  very  real 
to  them,  and  when  they  find  some  one 
who  sympathizes  with  them,  some  one 
who  really  knows,  they  will  take  the 
short  cut  in  order  to  unburden  their 
hearts  to  one  who  is  a  friend.  Not  all 
will  be  equally  successful,  but  it  is  the 
sacred  duty  of  every  follower  of  Christ 
to  leave  nothing  undone  in  the  develop- 
55 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

merit  of  his  own  personality  so  that 
young  people  will  be  attracted  to  Christ 
through  him.  Then  when  we  have  done 
all  that  we  can  do,  God  will  do  what 
we  cannot  do,  and  we  will  stand  amazed 
at  the  results  of  our  own  efforts. 

The  Sunday  school  and  the  Epworth 
League  offer  unparalleled  opportuni- 
ties for  reaching  the  young  life  of  the 
church.  These  are  practically  the  only 
organizations  within  the  church  that 
can  carry  out  a  plan  of  continuous 
evangelism.  Be  it  said  to  the  credit  of 
both  of  these  organizations  that  they 
are  doing  a  greater  evangelistic  work 
to-day  than  ever  before  in  their  history. 
When  a  pastor  I  planned  with  the  Sun- 
day School  Board  of  my  church  for 
Decision  Day  months  in  advance.  This 
involved  many  conferences  with  the 
officers,  teachers,  and  parents,  but  when 
Decision  Day  came,  the  appeal  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  rich  harvest  chiefly  of  young 
people,  who  were  at  once  assigned  to 
preparatory  classes  under  the  direction 
56 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

of  the  pastor.  The  Epworth  League, 
never  stronger  or  more  efficient  than  it 
is  to-day,  is  doing  a  work  among  the 
young  people  of  Methodism  that 
augurs  great  things  for  the  future  of 
the  church.  Dr.  Charles  E.  Guthrie, 
general  secretary  of  the  Epworth 
League  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  has  well  said:  "The  universal 
feature  of  young  life  is  not  study,  al- 
though for  many  reasons  we  could  wish 
it  were;  nor  is  worship,  important  as 
that  must  be  admitted  to  be.  The  uni- 
versal feature  of  young  hfe  is  comrade- 
ship. This  has  been  recognized  and 
made  fundamental  in  the  young  peo- 
ple's movement  known  as  the  Epworth 
League — so  that  the  movement  which 
has  had  such  phenomenal  development 
for  a  generation  is  nothing  more  than 
the  strategy  of  the  church  capitalizing 
the  comradeship  of  youth  for  the  serv- 
ice of  Christ." 

This  is  what  the  Epworth  League 
institutes  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
57 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Church  are  doing  for  the  youth  of 
Methodism.  To  these  institutes  come 
young  people  paying  their  own  ex- 
penses and  entering  enthusiastically 
upon  a  week  of  intensive  training  for 
better  service  and  for  leadership  in  the 
local  chapters  and  home  churches. 
During  the  institute  week  these  young 
people  not  only  face  but  diligently 
study  "the  whole  program,  for  the 
whole  church,  for  the  whole  world." 
Under  the  inspiration  of  the  fine  Chris- 
tian comradeship  of  the  institutes  large 
numbers  of  the  most  promising  youth 
of  Methodism  find  Christ  as  a  personal 
Saviour  and  discover  that  God  has  a 
special  work  for  them  to  do. 

The  third  requisite  is  to  ''follow  up" 
faithfully  the  work  that  has  been  be- 
gun. In  this  respect  the  church  has 
too  often  failed.  We  have  all  known 
of  great  revivals  of  religion  that  gave 
promise  of  great  things  for  the  King- 
dom. But  six  months  after  the  revival 
was  over  there  was  very  little  to  show 
58 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

for  it.  The  work  accomplished  was 
thorough  enough,  but  there  was  no  fol- 
low-up plan.  No  business  house  would 
be  guilty  of  such  neglect  in  the  care  of 
new  customers.  With  what  painstak- 
ing care  the  new  prospects  are  followed 
up!  What  interest  is  manifested  and 
what  courtesy  is  extended  to  those 
whom  it  is  hoped  will  become  regular 
patrons !  It  is  even  more  essential  that 
new  converts  shall  be  followed  up  and 
encouraged  and  advised.  The  Epworth 
League  for  years  was  weak  at  this 
point.  Large  numbers  of  life  decisions 
and  conversions  were  reported  each 
year  by  those  having  in  charge  the  in- 
stitutes, but  the  church  had  compara- 
tively little  to  show  for  it.  All  this  is 
being  changed  now,  for  the  League  is 
developing  a  life-service  department 
with  carefully  trained  young  people  as 
life-service  secretaries,  whose  whole 
time  is  being  given  in  the  interest  of 
those  who  have  heard  the  call  of  God 
to  some  special  form  of  Christian  serv- 
59 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

ice.  Follow-up  work  that  is  carefully 
planned  and  patiently  pursued  will 
bring  a  rich  reward.  Our  failure  to  fol- 
low up  some  preliminary  endeavor  may 
mean  complete  failure  so  far  as  some 
soul  is  concerned.  A  young  man  who 
attended  the  church  I  served  as  pas- 
tor was  a  university  student  who  stood 
well  among  his  fellows.  Soon  after 
making  his  acquaintance  I  had  the  good 
fortune  of  gaining  his  friendship. 
When  I  first  met  him  he  said  with  con- 
siderable assurance,  "I  tried  out  reli- 
gion once  and  don't  think  there  is  much 
in  it."  To  become  a  lawyer  was  the 
goal  of  his  ambitions.  I  made  up  my 
mind  I  would  win  him  for  Christ  if  such 
a  thing  were  possible.  For  two  years 
I  lost  no  opportunity  of  showing  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  him.  I  literally  laid 
siege  to  that  young  man's  life,  and  to 
my  great  joy  he  came  forward  at  the 
close  of  a  preaching  service  one  Sunday 
morning  and  said  in  a  calm  but  definite 
fashion:  "I  have  made  the  decision  to- 
60 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

day.  I  am  ready  to  unite  with  the 
Church."  The  two  years  of  quest  for 
the  salvation  of  that  young  man  were 
worth  while,  and  though  he  did  not  be- 
come a  lawyer,  he  did  go  into  journal- 
ism, and  the  last  I  heard  of  him  he  was 
the  assistant  editor  of  a  daily  paper  in 
one  of  the  greatest  cities  of  this  coun- 
try. It  pays  to  "follow  up"  and  it  pays 
to  hold  on. 

In  addition  to  following  up  prelimi- 
nary endeavor,  every  effort  should  be 
made  to  tie  up  the  new  convert  to  some 
kind  of  Christian  service.  After  im- 
pression must  come  expression.  This 
is  not  always  an  easy  task,  but  until 
young  Christians  are  related  in  some 
vital  way  to  the  activities  of  the  church 
or  to  some  kind  of  Christian  service, 
we  cannot  avoid  the  conviction  they  are 
in  grave  danger  of  losing  their  hold  on 
the  Christian  life  altogether. 

In  deahng  with  young  people  and 
their  rehgious  life  it  is  neither  right  nor 
fair  that  the  same  type  of  religious  ex- 
61 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

perience  shall  be  expected  of  them  that 
is  to  be  found  in  persons  of  mature 
life  and  experience.  If  it  takes  ten 
years  for  nature  to  transform  the  body 
of  a  boy  into  that  of  a  man,  we  should 
be  very  patient  with  the  seemingly  slow 
progress  of  our  young  people  in  moral 
and  spiritual  development.  This  does 
not  mean,  however,  that  the  religious 
experiences  of  youth  are  not  as  clear 
and  distinct  as  are  those  of  later  life. 
They  are  undoubtedly  just  as  clear  and 
just  as  real,  but  they  are  the  experiences 
of  youth  and  not  those  of  old  age. 
Many  young  people  in  their  late  teens 
have  become  discouraged  in  their  reli- 
gious life  because  some  well-meaning 
but  unwise  grown-up  has  criticized  them 
unkindly  and  demanded  an  expression 
of  their  sincerity  which  was  utterly  un- 
reasonable from  the  standpoint  of 
youth.  Nothing  is  more  easily  marred 
than  young  life,  and  every  one  who 
seeks  to  win  young  people  to  Christ 
should  bear  this  fact  constantly  in  mind. 
62 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

To  be  successful  here  requires  all  the 
graces  of  Christian  character. 

Thus  far  in  the  discussion  there  has 
been  no  mention  of  the  place  of  the 
Bible  in  the  work  of  evangelization 
among  young  people.  It  need  scarcely 
be  said  that  the  personal  worker  must 
know  his  Bible.  He  cannot  know  it 
too  well,  and  he  cannot  read  it  too  often. 
Its  soul-saving  truths  must  become  a 
part  of  himself  and,  like  an  expert 
workman  who  is  thoroughly  familiar 
with  his  tools,  he  must  be  able  to  place 
his  hand  upon  those  portions  of  the 
Scripture  that  will  serve  his  immediate 
need.  The  use  of  the  Bible  should  not 
have  the  appearance  of  professionalism. 
Some  schools  of  evangelism  urge  an  im- 
mediate use  of  the  printed  page  in  deal- 
ing with  all  classes  of  persons.  The 
Bible  is  produced  at  once,  a  portion  of 
Scripture  selected  and  the  finger  is 
placed  upon  it,  with  the  request  that 
the  person  read  it  for  himself.  The 
wisdom  of  this  method  is  very  doubtful, 
63 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

and  unless  great  discrimination  is  used 
it  may  do  more  harm  than  good.  As 
a  rule,  the  person  who  is  not  yet  a  con- 
fessed follower  of  Christ  is  not  very 
much  interested  in  what  the  Bible  says, 
and  at  the  start  his  attitude  may  be 
utterly  disinterested,  or  even  antago- 
nistic. Of  course  there  will  be  excep- 
tions, but  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
find  a  meeting  ground  of  common  in- 
terest and  from  that  point  lead  the  un- 
believer on  to  the  place  where  he  accepts 
Christ  as  Saviour.  The  approach  must 
be  free  from  any  preacher  tone  and  it 
must  be  in  the  language  and  accent  of 
the  present  day.  The  work  is  not  com- 
pleted, however,  until  the  newly  con- 
fessed follower  of  Christ  discovers  that 
the  Bible  is  the  inspired  Word  of  God, 
the  Book  of  Life,  the  guide  to  the  way 
of  truth.  It  then  becomes  the  duty  of 
the  Christian  worker,  and  it  is  also  the 
duty  of  the  church,  to  so  interpret  the 
Scripture  as  the  Book  of  Life  that 
young  people  will  realize  that  it  is  of 
64 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

vital  importance  that  their  lives  be 
linked  up  with  its  teachings  and  pre- 
cepts. 

The  youth  time  of  life  is  at  once  the 
most  fascinating  and  dangerous.  If 
our  young  people  slip  out  of  their  teens 
into  manhood  and  womanhood  without 
having  acknowledged  Christ  as  their 
Saviour,  the  task  of  ever  winning  them 
to  the  Christian  life  is  increased  four- 
fold. 

It  was  in  my  late  teens  that  I  experi- 
enced conversion.  My  mother  was  an 
invalid  during  the  last  nineteen  or 
twenty  years  of  her  life,  and  during  all 
that  time  scarcely  knew  what  it  was  to 
draw  a  breath  without  a  pain.  I  had 
formed  the  friendship  of  two  or  three 
boys  who  were  reckless  in  their  eager- 
ness to  have  a  "good  time."  We  had 
agreed  to  attend  an  amusement  park 
which  was  nothing  but  a  German  beer 
garden.  While  on  the  way  I  was  seized 
with  a  conviction  that  if  I  carried  out 
the  plan  it  might  mean  my  ruin.  Sud- 
65 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

denly  and  quite  abruptly  I  excused  my- 
self from  my  friends  and  remarked  that 
instead  of  going  with  them  I  had  de- 
cided to  go  to  church.  They  thought 
I  was  perpetrating  a  joke,  but  for  me 
it  was  serious  business.  I  went  at  once 
to  the  church  our  family  attended,  the 
Sumner  Avenue  Church,  Brooklyn, 
New  York.  '  A  series  of  revival  meet- 
ings were  in  progress,  and  one  of  my 
sisters  was  at  the  piano  and  another  was 
in  the  choir.  The  pastor  was  conduct- 
ing the  meeting,  and  when  the  invita- 
tion was  extended  for  all  who  desired 
to  find  Christ  to  come  forward  and 
kneel  at  the  altar  of  prayer,  I  came 
forward  at  once.  It  was  there  I  had  a 
bitter  experience  due  to  the  well-mean- 
ing but  misdirected  efforts  of  the  pas- 
tor, who  kneeled  at  my  side  and  calhng 
me  by  my  given  name,  said:  "What  are 
you  here  for?  Your  parents  and  your 
family  are  Christian  people.  Why 
have  you  come  here?  What  do  you 
want?"  It  both  discouraged  and 
66 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

angered  me.  He  should  have  known 
that  my  young  heart  was  breaking.  I 
rephed,  "Please  leave  me  alone."  But 
no  relief  came,  and  I  went  home,  said 
nothing  to  my  mother  of  what  had  taken 
place,  and  retired  for  the  night.  When 
my  mother  learned  that  I  had  been  to 
the  altar  she  was  too  wise  to  force  any 
conversation  regarding  the  matter,  but 
as  she  told  me  afterward,  she  was  in 
constant  prayer  all  that  night  and  the 
next  day.  The  next  night  I  again  went 
to  the  altar,  but  again  found  no  relief. 
I  said  to  mother  that  night,  "Well,  it's 
no  use.  I  am  going  to  give  it  up,"  and 
she  replied,  "My  dear  boy,  hold  on." 
The  third  night  I  went  to  the  altar  and 
still  no  relief  came.  I  hastened  home 
from  the  church,  fully  intending  to  put 
forth  no  more  effort.  Mother  was  wait- 
ing for  my  return.  It  was  always  her 
custom  to  remain  awake  until  she  knew 
I  was  home,  but  on  this  occasion  she 
was  sitting  in  her  old  armchair.  Poor 
soul,  she  was  such  a  sufferer!  Rheu- 
67 


EVANGELISM 

matism  had  played  havoc  with  her 
body.  Her  Hmbs  and  feet  and  hands 
were  so  swollen  and  distorted.  She 
said  as  I  entered  her  room,  "Well,  how 
did  you  get  along?"  I  replied  there 
was  no  use  trying  and  that  I  would 
have  to  give  it  up.  "No,"  she  said, 
"don't  give  up.  Let's  pray  about  it." 
She  had  been  so  long  an  invalid  that  I 
could  not  recall  the  last  time  I  had 
seen  her  kneel  in  prayer.  But  on  this 
occasion  she  did  kneel,  and  with  her 
hand  upon  my  head  as  I  kneeled  at 
her  side,  she  prayed  as  only  mother 
could  pray.  It  was  then  that  I  found 
the  Lord.  My  heart  melted,  and  I 
realized  that  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  had 
forgiven  my  sins.  The  fact  of  my  con- 
version I  have  never  doubted  from  that 
time  to  this.  That  was  the  most  critical 
period  of  my  life  and  but  for  that  ex- 
perience I  might  have  lost  the  way. 

May  the  Church  of  Christ  not  fail  in 
her  ministry  to  the  youth  of  this  new 
dayl 

68 


Ill 

EVANGELISM  IN  CHURCH 
MUSIC 


Ill 

EVANGELISM  IN  CHURCH 
MUSIC 

The  purpose  of  this  lecture  is  not  to 
trace  the  history  of  the  development 
of  sacred  music  from  the  Hebrew 
temple  with  its  choir  and  its  psalms, 
from  the  synagogues  and  the  early 
Christian  fraternities,  with  their  cantil- 
lation  and  choral  antiphony,  down  to 
the  generally  accepted  customs  of 
modern  Christianity,  but  is,  rather,  to 
call  attention  to  the  character  and  pur- 
pose of  sacred  music  in  modern  Chris- 
tian worship. 

There  have  been  two  widely  differ- 
ent conceptions  of  sacred  music  as 
represented  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant  churches.  In  the 
former  the  church  decides  what  belongs 
71 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

to  the  essence  of  divine  worship.  Ac- 
cording to  this  conception,  church  music 
is  liturgical  song  as  appointed  by  the 
church  and  such  artistic  song  as  has 
been  carefully  examined  and  admitted 
for  use  in  divine  worship.  This  was 
expressed  very  definitely  by  the  decree 
of  the  Congregation  of  Rites  of  April 
23  and  26,  1883.  According  to  this 
decree,  "only  that  form  of  Gregorian 
song  was  to  be  regarded  as  authentic 
and  regular,  which  in  virtue  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Council  of  Trent  has  been 
approved  and  confirmed  by  His  Holi- 
ness Pope  Leo  XIII,  as  hkewise  by  the 
Congregation  of  Sacred  Rites,  con- 
formably to  the  edition  prepared  at 
Regensburg,  as  the  one  used  by  the 
Roman  Church." 

This  decree,  however,  was  reversed 
by  Pius  X  shortly  after  his  accession 
to  the  papal  throne.  He  threw  the 
weight  of  his  authority  in  favor  of  the 
school  of  Solesmes,  with  the  result  that 
the  monopoly  of  the  Regensburg  edi- 
72 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

tors  came  suddenly  to  an  end.  The 
latter  decree  did  not  exclude  modern 
music  from  use  in  church  services,  but 
the  restrictions  and  limitations  placed 
upon  it  required  that  it  be  religious  and 
ecclesiastical  in  character. 

According  to  the  Protestant  concep- 
tion, sacred  music  is  one  of  the  essen- 
tials to  divine  service.  It  aids  in  the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel,  creates  an 
atmosphere  of  worship,  fosters  prayer, 
and  expresses  emotions  that  strive  in 
vain  for  words.  Evangehcal  worship 
is  essentially  a  congregational  act,  and 
implies  that  the  congregation  shall  take 
part  in  the  same. 

All  great  revivals  of  religion  have 
resulted  in  an  outbreak  of  joy  which 
could  only  be  expressed  in  song.  This 
was  true  of  the  revival  under  Francis 
of  Assisi.  His  followers  were  called 
"Joculatores  Domini,"  that  is,  "God's 
jongleurs."  They  went  up  and  down 
the  valleys  of  Italy  singing  their  songs, 
the  most  famous  of  which  was  the  song 
73 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

written  by  Francis  himself  entitled 
"Canticle  of  the  Sun."  This  song  was 
declared  by  Renan  to  be  "the  most 
perfect  utterance  of  modern  rehgious 
sentiment  and  showing  how  closely  the 
heart  of  Francis  was  wedded  to  nature 
and  to  God." 

The  Reformation  gave  to  hymn-sing- 
ing an  impetus  that  continues  to  this 
day.  The  revival  under  Luther  was 
characterized  by  an  outburst  of  song. 
Because  of  the  reformation  of  public 
worship  there  was  a  demand  on  the  part 
of  the  people  for  a  simpler  form  in 
which  they  might  engage. 

Concerning  the  translations  of  hymns 
and  chants  which  Luther  made,  as  well 
as  the  hymns  he  himself  composed,  the 
Rev.  James  Burns  has  well  said: 
"These  hymns  bear  the  same  popular 
note  as  his  translations  of  Scripture. 
They  are  full  of  evangehcal  faith,  full 
of  fervor,  and  couched  in  language 
which  goes  straight  to  the  heart  of  the 
people.  His  great  hymn  'Ein'  feste 
74 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Burg  ist  unser  Gott,'  with  its  inspiring 
tune,  also  written  by  himself,  Heine  has 
called  *The  Marseillaise  of  the  Refor- 
mation.' It  at  once  caught  the  popu- 
lar ear,  and  sweeping  over  Germany, 
was  sung  by  tens  of  thousands  whose 
hearts  had  been  Hberated  by  the  evan- 
gelical message,  and  who  found  in  this 
noble  hymn  an  outlet  for  their  joy.  His 
other  hymn  also,  'Nun  freut  euch  lieben 
Christen  gemein,'  which  expresses  his 
own  Christian  experience,  and  gives  ex- 
pression also  to  the  joyous  hberty  which 
the  message  of  the  gospel  brings,  be- 
came immensely  popular.  'Through 
this  one  hymn  of  Luther's,'  says  Hes- 
shusius,  'many  hundreds  of  Christians 
have  been  brought  to  the  true  faith,  who 
before  could  not  endure  the  name  of 
Luther.'  These  hymns  undoubtedly 
did  much  to  awaken  in  dormant  hearts 
a  new  desire  for  spiritual  things;  they 
created  new  emotions;  they  brought 
into  common  life  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  some  of  the  most  tender  and 
75 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

affecting  thoughts  of  God;  they 
brought  rehgion  down  to  hve  with  peo- 
ple in  their  common  tasks,  to  cheer  them 
in  their  hours  of  drudgery,  console  them 
in  their  hours  of  loss,  and  to  their 
troubled  and  burdened  hearts  gave 
solace  and  ease.  Instead  of  being  re- 
garded as  something  distant  and  mys- 
terious, religion  became  to  tens  of  thou- 
sands something  intimate  and  precious ; 
Christ  had  come  down  from  the  clouds 
in  which  he  had  been  hidden,  and  now 
tabernacled  amongst  them." 

The  Wesleyan  revival  turned  loose 
vast  spiritual  energies,  and  wherever 
John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  White- 
field  went  the  common  people  heard 
them  gladly.  This  movement  also  gave 
great  impetus  to  hymn-singing.  John 
Wesley  was  for  days  seeking  for  peace 
and  assurance.  He  says  he  was  fol- 
lowing the  instructions  given  him  by 
Peter  Bohler,  a  man  who  had  come 
under  the  influence  of  Count  Zinzen- 
dorf,  and  who  was  then  giving  ad- 
76 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

dresses  in  London  to  small  companies 
of  men  and  women. 

As  told  by  Wesley,  the  instructions 
which  Bohler  gave  were  that  he  could 
find  peace  by  (1)  "absolutely  renounc- 
ing all  dependence,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
upon  my  own  works  of  righteousness, 
on  which  I  had  really  grounded  my 
hope  of  salvation,  though  I  knew  it  not, 
from  my  youth  up;  (2)  by  adding  to 
the  constant  use  of  all  the  other  means 
of  grace  continued  prayer  for  this  very 
thing;  justifying,  saving  faith;  a  fuller 
rehance  on  the  blood  of  Christ  shed  for 
me;  a  trust  in  him  as  my  sole  justifica- 
tion, sanctification,  and  redemption." 
Despite  all  these  efforts  he  says  he  still 
remained  in  a  state  of  "strange  indiflPer- 
ence,  dullness,  and  coldness,  and  a  con- 
stant sense  of  failure."  But  that  great 
day,  May  24,  1738,  finally  came  for 
him,  when  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing he  opened  his  Bible  and  read, 
"There  are  given  unto  us  exceeding 
great  and  precious  promises  that  we 
77 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

should  be  partakers  of  the  divine  na- 
ture." A  little  later  he  again  opened 
his  Bible  and  read,  "Thou  art  not  far 
from  the  kingdom  of  God."  All  that 
day  he  seemed  to  live  in  a  state  of  great 
expectation  and  toward  evening  he 
says,  "I  went  very  unwillingly  to  the 
Society  in  Aldersgate  Street,  where 
one  was  reading  Luther's  preface  to 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  About  a 
quarter  before  nine  while  he  was  de- 
scribing the  change  wrought  by  God  in 
the  heart  through  faith  in  Christ,  I  felt 
my  heart  strangely  warmed.  I  felt  I 
did  trust  Christ,  Christ  alone,  for  sal- 
vation; and  an  assurance  was  given  me 
that  he  had  taken  away  my  sins,  even 
mine,  and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.  I  began  to  pray  with  all 
my  might  for  those  who  had  in  a  more 
special  manner  despitefuUy  used  me 
and  persecuted  me.  I  then  testified 
openly  to  all  there  what  I  now  first  felt 
in  my  heart."  But  he  then  goes  on  to 
say:  "It  was  not  long  before  the  enemy 
78 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

suggested,  *This  cannot  be  faith;  for 
where  is  thy  joy?'  Then  was  I  taught 
that  peace  and  victory  over  sin  are 
essential  to  faith  in  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation;  but  that,  as  to  the  transports 
of  joy  that  usually  attend  the  begin- 
ning of  it,  especially  in  those  who 
have  mourned  deeply,  God  sometimes 
giveth,  sometimes  withholdeth,  them 
according  to  the  counsels  of  his  own 
will." 

Wesley  and  his  friends  then  hastened 
to  carry  the  glad  tidings  to  his  brother 
Charles,  who  was  at  that  time  ill  in  bed. 
Charles  says:  ^Toward  ten  my  brother 
was  brought  in  triumph  by  a  troop  of 
our  friends  and  declared,  *I  believe.' 
We  sang  a  hymn  with  great  joy  and 
parted  in  prayer." 

The  hymn  which  in  all  probability 
was  sung  was  the  one  composed  by 
Charles  Wesley  at  the  time  of  his  own 
conversion  and  was  in  reality  the  first 
hymn  of  the  new  movement. 

The  hymn  that  struck  the  keynote  of 
79 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

the  Wesleyan  Revival  was  written  by 
Charles  Wesley,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
sung  by  Jesse  Lee  under  the  Old  Elm 
on  Boston  Common  in  1790  when  he 
came  to  New  England  for  the  purpose 
of  introducing  Methodism: 

"Come,  sinners,  to  the  Gospel  feast, 
Let  every  soul  be  Jesus'  guest: 
Ye  need  not  one  be  left  behind. 
For  God  hath  bidden  all  mankind." 

Charles  Wesley  has  undoubtedly  made 
a  richer  contribution  to  the  hymnology 
of  the  Christian  Church  than  any  other 
hymn- writer.  Up  to  the  time  of  his 
conversion  he  wrote  very  few  hymns, 
but  after  that  great  event  he  gave  ex- 
pression to  his  new-found  joy  by  writ- 
ing hymns.  His  biographers  say  that 
he  wrote  not  less  than  six  thousand  five 
hundred  hymns  that  express  in  a  very 
remarkable  manner  not  only  his  ear- 
nestness and  zeal,  but  also  his  intense 
love  for  Christ  his  Saviour.  One  sixth 
of  all  the  hymns  of  the  Methodist 
80 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Hymnal  were  written  by  this  great 
hymn-writer,  while  there  are  very  few, 
if  any,  of  the  hymnals  or  song  books 
used  by  other  denominations  that  do  not 
include  in  their  list  one  or  more  of  his 
hymns. 

More  attention  should  be  given  to 
the  use  of  great  hymns  in  public  wor- 
ship. Unquestionably  they  are  among 
the  most  powerful  agencies  at  our  com- 
mand for  the  development  of  the  reU- 
gious  sentiment  of  our  people.  The 
best  of  them,  from  the  standpoint  of 
theology,  poetry,  form,  and  imagery, 
are  exquisitely  beautiful  and  help  to 
bring  certain  phases  of  the  truth  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people  in  a  way  in  which 
nothing  else  can.  The  great  hymns  of 
the  church  have  been  born  out  of  some 
of  the  richest  spiritual  experiences  of 
the  race.  They  reveal  qualities  of  reli- 
gious fervor  that  can  be  explained  on 
no  other  ground  than  that  of  divine  in- 
spiration. 

In  the  Psalter  published  by  Dr.  Isaac 
81 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Watts,  probably  the  greatest  hymn 
was: 

"O,  God,  our  help  In  ages  past. 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come, 
Our  shelter  from  the  stormy  blast, 
And  our  eternal  home !" 

The  world  will  not  quickly  forget  or 
fail  to  use  his  inspiring  hymn,  "Joy  to 
the  world  I  the  Lord  is  come."  It  would 
be  of  great  benefit  to  Christian  people 
if  in  these  days  of  strife  and  disorder, 
when  the  nations  of  the  world  are  strug- 
gling for  a  readjustment  and  feeling 
their  way  toward  a  new  appraisement 
of  himian  values,  the  last  verse  of  this 
great  hymn  could  be  sung  frequently: 

"He  rules  the  world  with  truth  and  grace 
And  makes  the  nations  prove 
The  glories  of  his  righteousness, 
And  wonders  of  his  love." 

But  of  aU  the  hymns  written  by  Dr. 
Watts,  the  one  that  is  cherished  most 
dearly  by  Christian  people  everywhere 

is: 

82 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

"When  I  survey  the  wondrous  cross 

On  which  the  Prince  of  Glory  died, 
My  richest  gain  I  count  but  loss, 
And  pour  contempt  on  all  my  pride." 

The  hymns  of  Philip  Doddridge  have 
a  permanent  place  in  the  religious  ex- 
periences of  Christian  people.  His 
hymns  exalt  the  joy  and  privilege  of 
service : 

"My  gracious  Lord,  I  own  thy  right 
To  every  service  I  can  pay, 
And  call  it  my  supreme  delight 
To  hear  thy  dictates,  and  obey. 

"What  is  my  being  but  for  thee, 

Its  sure  support,  its  noblest  end? 
'Tis  my  delight  thy  face  to  see, 

And  serve  the  cause  of  such  a  Friend. 

"His  work  my  hoary  age  shall  bless. 
When  youthful  vigor  is  no  more; 
And  my  last  hour  of  life  confess 
His  dying  love,  his  saving  power." 

He  did  not  shrink  from  the  work 
and  service  which  he  believed  God 
wanted  him  to  do.    It  was  his  highest 

83 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

joy  to  serve,  and  service  for  him  was 
no  hardship. 

"How  gentle  God's  commands ! 
How  kind  his  precepts  are  1 
Come,  cast  your  burdens  on  the  Lord, 
And  trust  his  constant  care. 

"His  goodness  stands  approved, 
Unchanged  from  day  to  day. 
I'll  drop  my  burden  at  his  feet. 
And  bear  a  song  away." 

John  Newton  has  enriched  the  world 
by  his  hymns.  He  had  rather  a  check- 
ered career.  His  mother  was  a  de- 
vout Christian  whose  one  great  de- 
sire was  that  her  boy  might  become  a 
minister.  But  she  died  when  John  was 
a  mere  child,  and  at  eleven  he  went  to 
sea.  He  became  wild  and  reckless  and 
ultimately  plunged  into  infidehty. 
When  about  eighteen  a  press-gang 
seized  him  and  placed  him  on  the  Har- 
wich man-of-war.  He  became  midship- 
man, but  deserted  the  ship  one  night 
while  she  lay  in  Plymouth  Harbor.  He 
84 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

was  caught  and  treated  with  such 
severity  that  he  was  glad  to  be  ex- 
changed to  a  merchantman.  The  years 
that  followed  were  years  of  dissipation. 
The  vessel  visited  Africa,  and  while 
there  he  left  it  and  hired  himself  out 
to  a  slave-trader.  During  all  his  wild 
career  he  never  lost  his  craving  for  edu- 
cation. On  a  voyage  back  to  England 
he  began  to  read  Thomas  a  Kempis. 
The  thought  came  to  him,  "What  if 
these  things  should  be  true?"  That 
very  night  there  was  a  fearful  storm 
and  the  lives  of  all  on  board  were  im- 
periled. Newton  was  profoundly  con- 
victed of  sin.  He  says,  "I  began  to 
pray.  I  could  not  utter  the  prayer  of 
faith.  I  could  not  draw  near  to  a  recon- 
ciled God  and  call  him  Father.  My 
prayer  was  hke  the  cry  of  the  raven, 
which  yet  the  Lord  does  not  disdain  to 
hear."  He  studied  the  New  Testament 
and  was  particularly  impressed  with  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  When 
he  arrived  at  England  he  was  a  changed 
85 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

man.  Later  he  became  a  minister  in 
the  Estabhshed  Church.  After  a  lapse 
of  thirty  years  the  prayer  of  his  mother 
was  answered.  No  wonder  then  that 
grace  became  his  favorite  theme. 
He  thus  describes  his  conversion: 

"In  evil  long  I  took  delight, 
Unawed  by  shame  or  fear, 
Till  a  new  object  struck  my  sight 
And  stopped  my  wild  career. 

"I  saw  One  hanging  on  a  tree, 
In  agonies  and  blood. 
Who  fixed  his  languid  eyes  on  me, 
As  near  his  cross  I  stood. 

"Thus,  while  his  death  my  sin  displays 
In  all  its  blackest  hue. 
Such  is  the  mystery  of  grace, 
It  seals  my  pardon,  too." 

When  we  think  of  the  sinful  life  he  had 
lived,  of  the  depths  to  which  he  had 
sunk,  and  then  of  his  wonderful  con- 
version, we  are  inspired  though  not  sur- 
prised to  hear  him  sing: 
86 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

"Amazing  grace !  How  sweet  the  sound, 
That  saved  a  wretch  like,  me ! 
I  once  was  lost,  but  now  am  found, 
Was  blind,  but  now  I  see. 

"  'Twas  grace  that  taught  my  heart  to  fear, 
And  grace  my  fears  relieved; 
How  precious  did  that  grace  appear 
The  hour  I  first  believed! 

"Through  many  dangers,  toils,  and  snares 
I  have  already  come ; 
'Tis  grace  hath  brought  me  safe  thus  far, 
And  grace  will  lead  me  home." 

The  hymns  just  referred  to  illustrate 
the  fact  that  the  great  hymns  of  the 
church  root  back  into  some  of  the  rich- 
est experiences  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge. 

For  many  years  the  kingdom  of  God 
has  suffered  violence  at  the  hands  of 
mercenary  people  who  have  flooded  the 
market  with  cheap  and  unworthy  so- 
called  "gospel  hymns."  Christian  peo- 
ple should  be  brought  back  to  an  ap- 
preciation of  those  hymns  that  have  in 
them  real  merit.  Many  preachers  have 
87 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

allowed  themselves  to  be  imposed  upon 
by  cheap  evangelists,  who  invariably 
force  upon  them  and  their  believing 
people  their  own  songbooks.  It  would 
not  be  fair  to  say  that  none  of  the 
modern  gospel  songbooks  are  of  any 
real  value.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact 
that  the  songbooks  of  most  evangelists 
are  short-lived  and  that  many  of  the 
songs  used  in  some  evangelistic  cam- 
paigns are  a  travesty  on  religion.  The 
mercenary  motives  of  evangelists  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  refusal  of  so  many  to  con- 
duct revival  meetings  unless  they  can 
have  the  privilege  of  selling  their  own 
books.  The  income  from  this  source 
alone  frequently  is  more  than  the  church 
pays  the  evangelist  for  his  services. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  for  preachers 
to  think  revival  meetings,  prayer  meet- 
ings, and  Sunday  night  services  cannot 
be  successfully  conducted  unless  popu- 
lar gospel  songs  are  used.  For  many 
years,  I  used  nothing  but  the  hymnal 
in  all  the  services  of  the  church.  A 
88 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

study  of  the  hymns  and  the  circum- 
stances under  which  they  were  written 
was  not  only  an  inspiration  to  myself, 
but  I  soon  found  that  the  people  be- 
came more  interested  when  they  knew 
their  history,  and  soon  they  preferred 
them  to  the  cheap  modern  gospel  songs. 
Of  course  people  will  not  take  an  in- 
terest in  the  use  of  the  great  hymns  if 
the  preacher  is  not  interested.  Not 
enough  time  and  thought  are  expended 
by  preachers  upon  their  plan  of  action 
in  the  use  of  hymns.  Their  selections 
are  made  at  random  and  not  infre- 
quently there  occur  long  awkward 
pauses  in  services  while  the  leader  is 
endeavoring  to  find  "some  familiar 
hymn."  This  should  not  be.  The 
hymns  should  always  be  selected  before 
the  service  begins  and  with  the  great- 
est care.  In  the  less  formal  meetings, 
such  as  the  Sunday  night  service,  the 
midweek  prayer  service,  and  the  revival 
meeting,  a  brief  reference  to  the  author 
of  the  hymn  and  some  telling  incident 
89 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

in  connection  with  its  origin  and  use 
will  cause  the  people  to  sing  with  new 
spirit  and  meaning.  In  the  last  church 
I  served  as  pastor  it  was  my  privilege 
to  conduct  a  series  of  revival  services 
that  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  many- 
people.  The  Church  Hymnal  was 
used  exclusively.  One  feature  of  each 
service,  which  I  shall  always  believe  had 
much  to  do  with  the  gracious  results, 
was  the  use  of  Charles  Wesley's  great 
hymn  written,  it  is  supposed,  at  the  time 
of  his  conversion.  Undoubtedly,  it  is 
a  description  of  his  own  experience : 

"And  can  it  be  that  I  should  gain 

An  interest  in  the  Saviour's  blood? 

Died  he  for  me,  who  caused  his  pain? 
For  me,  who  him  to  death  pursued? 

Amazing  love !  how  can  it  be 

That  thou,  my  Lord,  shouldst  die  for  me? 

"  'Tis  mystery  all !  the  Immortal  dies ! 
Who  can  explore  his  strange  design? 
In  vain  the  first-born  seraph  tries 
To  sound  the  depths  of  love  divine ; 
90 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

'Tis  mercy  all !  let  earth  adore : 
Let  angel  minds  inquire  no  more. 

"He  left  his  Father's  throne  above, 

So  free,  so  infinite  his  grace ! 
Emptied  himself  of  all  but  love. 

And  bled  for  Adam's  helpless  race ; 
'Tis  mercy  all,  immense  and  free. 
For,  O,  my  God,  it  found  out  me ! 

"Long  my  imprisoned  spirit  lay. 

Fast  bound  in  sin  and  nature's  night; 
Thine  eye  diffused  a  quickening  ray, 

I  woke,  the  dungeon  flamed  with  light: 
My  chains  fell  off,  my  heart  was  free, 
I  rose,  went  forth,  and  followed  thee. 

"No  condemnation  now  I  dread, 
Jesus,  with  all  in  him,  is  mine; 
Alive  in  him,  my  living  Head, 

And  clothed  in  righteousness  divine, 
Bold  I  approach  the  eternal  throne. 
And  claim  the  crown,  through  Christ,  my 
ojni." 

This  great  hymn,  in  some  respects 
Charles  Wesley's  greatest  hymn,  was 
used  throughout  the  entire  series  of 
91 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

special  meetings,  immediately  before 
the  sermon.  It  became  a  great  favorite 
with  the  people  and  is  remembered  by 
them  to  this  day. 

As  a  rule,  the  most  effective  hymns 
that  can  be  used  when  the  appeal  to  the 
unsaved  is  being  made  are  those  having 
choruses  that  are  calculated  to  stir  the 
emotions  and  bring  the  undecided  to 
immediate  decision.  Some  hymns  have 
been  honored  of  God  in  this  respect  and 
have  become  interwoven  in  the  experi- 
ences of  vast  numbers  of  people.  Who 
is  there  whose  heart  is  not  stirred  pro- 
foundly when  he  hears  a  congregation 
of  earnest  devoted  Christian  people 
sing — 

"Come  every  soul  by  sin  oppressed, 
There's  mercy  with  the  Lord" — 

"Only  trust  him,  only  trust  him. 
Only  trust  him  now: 
He  will  save  you,  he  will  save  you, 
He  will  save  you  now." 

"Pass  me  not,  O  gentle  Saviour," 
92 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

with  its  wonderful  chorus — 

"Saviour,  Saviour,  hear  my  humble  cry, 
While  on  others  thou  art  calhng, 
Do  not  pass  me  by." 

Or,  yet  again — 

"I  am  coming  to  the  cross, 
I  am  poor,  and  weak  and  blind, 

with  its  chorus — 

"I  am  trusting,  Lord,  in  thee, 
Blest  Lamb  of  Calvary ; 
Humbly  at  thy  cross  I  bow, 
Save  me,  Jesus,  save  me  now." 

The  contrast  between  such  hymns  as 
these  and  many  of  the  modern  so-called 
revival  hymns  is  very  great. 

The  choir  and  the  organist  occupy 
positions  of  great  importance  and  can 
aid  the  pastor  in  his  work  or  be  the 
cause  of  much  anguish  and  sorrow.  Too 
much  emphasis  cannot  be  placed  upon 
the  importance  of  the  organist  being 
a  Chi^istian  man  or  woman.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  choir  leader  and  of  mem- 
93 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

bers  of  the  choir.  That  it  is  nothing 
short  of  mockery  to  have  persons  in 
these  important  positions  who  are  not 
Christians  is  too  obvious  to  require 
argument  or  exposition.  All  the  music 
of  the  church  should  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  pastor.  I  know  this  is  a 
delicate  question,  and  that  the  music 
department  of  the  church  is  often 
spoken  of  as  the  war  department,  but 
it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  person 
upon  whom  rests  the  responsibility  for 
the  success  of  all  the  services  of  the 
church  should  not  be  hampered  in  his 
work.  Authority  must  reside  in  some 
one,  and  that  some  one  should  be  the 
pastor.  Having  said  this,  there  must 
not  be  left  unsaid  this  other  statement, 
namely,  that  the  greatest  sympathy 
should  exist  between  the  pastor  and  the 
organist,  or  choir  leader  and  the  singers 
of  the  choir.  In  many  churches  the 
function  of  the  choir  should  be  empha- 
sized more  than  it  is.  In  fulfilling  its 
mission  the  choir  renders  a  service  of 
94 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  greatest  importance.  One  of  the 
glaring  defects,  however,  in  the  service 
rendered  by  most  choirs  is  the  expres- 
sionless and  careless  manner  in  which 
they  sing  the  hymns.  No  less  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  rendering  of 
anthems  and  the  great  musical  pro- 
ductions of  the  masters,  but  more  at- 
tention should  be  paid  to  the  singing  of 
hymns.  It  is  frequently  the  case  that 
choirs  will  spend  almost  an  entire  eve- 
ning in  rehearsing  an  anthem  that  is  to 
be  rendered  the  following  Sunday,  but 
will  not  sing  more  than  one  stanza  of 
the  hymns  that  have  been  chosen  by  the 
pastor  and  which  bear  directly  upon 
the  message  he  is  to  give  the  people. 
This  is  a  grave  mistake.  Every  hymn 
has  a  message  and  it  is  the  high  duty 
and  privilege  of  those  who  lead  the  con- 
gregation in  holy  song  to  so  interpret 
the  hymns  so  that  the  people  will  catch 
their  message.  By  his  own  understand- 
ing and  appreciation  of  hymns  the  pas- 
tor will  be  careful  to  select  those  that 
95 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

will  make  a  real  contribution  to  wor- 
ship of  the  hour. 

Sometimes  pastors  suffer  from  what 
may  be  called  choir-tyranny.  Leaders 
of  choirs  now  and  then  arrogate  to 
themselves  rights  and  privileges  which 
do  not  belong  to  them.  By  their  un- 
friendly attitude  toward  the  pastor  they 
prejudice  the  members  of  the  choir 
against  him.  Soon  there  is  a  manifest 
spirit  of  unwillingness  to  cooperate 
with  the  pastor  in  his  plans,  and  the 
result  is  very  far-reaching.  Like  the 
minister,  the  choir  is  to  lead  the  congre- 
gation in  worship,  and  exists  for  that 
one  purpose.  When  there  is  lack  of 
harmony  between  the  pastor  and  the 
choir,  neither  can  render  the  most  effi- 
cient service  and  the  possibilities  of 
evangelism  are  greatly  diminished,  if 
not  rendered  impossible.  No  people  in 
the  world  are  more  susceptible  to  kind- 
liness and  respectful  consideration,  to 
an  intelligent,  judicious,  and  sympa- 
thetic policy  than  are  church  organists, 
96 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

choir  leaders,  and  singers.  Where  these 
are  Christian  people  and  there  exists 
a  spirit  of  sympathy  and  cooperation 
between  them  and  the  pastor  there  are 
possibilities  for  evangelism  beyond  our 
power  to  reckon.  Such  a  combination 
makes  possible  an  appeal  to  the  un- 
saved through  song  that  is  well-nigh 
irresistible. 

The  great  hymns  of  the  church  not 
only  make  their  appeal  to  the  uncon- 
verted. We  all  cherish  certain  hymns 
because  they  remind  us  of  some  tender 
experience  relating  to  our  lives  or  to 
those  whom  we  "have  loved  long  since 
and  lost  awhile."  They  come  to  us  in 
the  great  crises  of  life.  They  brighten 
our  hope,  strengthen  our  faith,  and 
soothe  the  hurt  of  a  broken  heart. 

My  own  dear  mother  as  she  lay  upon 
her  dying  bed,  after  many  years  of  the 
severest  suffering  and  invalidhood,  fell 
injo  a  very  sound  sleep.  It  was  only  a 
night  or  two  before  her  outgoing.  My 
father  was  kee-ping  his  faithful  vigil, 
97 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

when  suddenly  he  heard  a  familiar  voice 
singing, 

"O  Thou,  in  whose  presence  my  soul  takes 
delight. 
On  whom  in  affliction  I  call, 
My  comfort  by  day,  and  my  song  in  the 
night. 
My  hope,  my  salvation,  my  all !" 

It  was  my  mother's  voice  singing  in  a 
marvelously  clear  tone  the  hymn  that 
had  been  a  favorite  with  her  all  her  life. 
Though  asleep  she  sang  every  verse 
clear  through  to  the  end.  Other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  were  awakened  by  it 
and  listened  in  breathless  silence,  for  it 
was  like  the  song  of  an  angel.  She  did 
not  waken  for  some  time  after  she  had 
ceased  singing,  and  when  told  of  what 
had  taken  place  she  was  not  surprised, 
for  the  hymns  of  the  church  had  been 
such  a  comfort  to  her  throughout  her 
entire  life. 

It  brought  to   mind  the  words   of 
David,  'T  call  to  remembrance  my  song 
98 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

in  the  night."  I  would  not  part  with 
the  memory  I  cherish  of  that  hymn  for 
the  wealth  of  the  world.  Some  things 
are  more  precious  than  gold. 

The  more  general  use  of  the  great 
hymns  would  enrich  the  life  of  the 
church  and  train  the  present  generation 
to  an  appreciation  of  that  kind  of 
sacred  song  which  has  been  the  glory  of 
the  church  throughout  all  her  history. 


99 


IV 

EVANGELISM  IN  SOCIAL 
SERVICE 


IV 

EVANGELISM  IN  SOCIAL 
SERVICE 

The  Old  Testament  is  pervaded  with 
a  vivid  sense  of  the  nation  as  a  living 
being.  Israel  is  addressed  in  a  most 
personal  manner  and  is  invited,  warned, 
punished,  and  rewarded  by  Jehovah. 
The  Jew  regarded  his  nation  as  chosen 
of  God,  called  out  of  Egypt,  led 
through  the  devious  wilderness  wander- 
ings, and  the  heir  of  all  the  promises. 
It  is  from  the  Hebrews  that  we  have 
received  our  ethical  and  religious  con- 
ceptions, and  these  were  based  upon  the 
family.  God  was  thought  of  as  a 
Father,  men  as  his  children,  and  the 
natural  result  was  an  organized  social 
hfe,  the  nation  being  its  highest  ex- 
pression. 

Social  service,  as  the  term  is  under- 
103 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

stood  to-day,  is  scarcely  to  be  found  in 
the  Old  Testament.  There  was  social 
unrest.  Law  and  prophecy  burned 
with  a  demand  for  social  justice.  There 
were  laws  dealing  with  practically  every 
human  relationship,  and  for  centuries 
the  prophets  of  Israel  thundered 
against  all  manner  of  social  wrongs. 
More  than  one  prophet's  voice  cried  out 
against  that  form  of  religious  worship 
that  divorced  itself  from  human  or 
social  service. 

Elijah,  Isaiah,  and  other  prophets 
blazed  with  indignation  at  national  and 
social  wrongs,  and  resented,  at  the  risk 
of  their  own  lives,  the  despotic  methods 
of  the  rulers  of  their  day.  *'Woe  unto 
them,"  thundered  Isaiah,  "that  decree 
unrighteous  decrees,  and  that  write 
grievousness  which  they  have  pre- 
scribed; to  turn  aside  the  needy  from 
judgment,  and  to  take  away  the  right 
from  the  poor  of  my  people,  that 
widows  may  be  their  prey,  and  that  they 
may  rob  the  fatherless!"  The  prophets 
104 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

insisted  that  individual  and  national 
life  must  be  built  upon  righteousness. 
They  declared  this  to  be  the  unalterable 
demand  of  the  one  true  God,  and  that 
he  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  else. 
They  held  up  to  scorn  the  idea  that  the 
nation  could  obtain  divine  pardon  by 
a  multiplication  of  sacrifices. 

The  words  of  Isaiah  which  are  so 
frequently  used  by  those  preaching  re- 
vival sermons,  "Though  your  sins  be 
as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as 
snow;  though  they  be  red  hke  crimson, 
they  shall  be  as  wool,"  have  no  refer- 
ence whatever  to  personal  pardon,  but, 
rather,  to  the  abolition  of  social  wrongs. 
The  prophet  is  saying  that  only  as  a 
nation  seeks  the  overthrow  of  social  in- 
justice and  oppression  can  it  gain  the 
favor  of  God. 

In  the  Old  Testament  this  salvation 
of  the  individual  is  bound  up  with  the 
moral  character  and  destiny  of  his  na- 
tion. Professor  Walter  Rauschen- 
busch  says:  "The  religious  ideal  of 
105 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Israel  was  the  theocracy.  But  the 
theocracy  meant  the  complete  penetra- 
tion of  the  national  life  by  religious 
morality.  It  meant  politics  in  the  name 
of  God.  That  line  by  which  we  have 
tacitly  separated  the  domain  of  public 
affairs  and  the  domain  of  Christian  life 
was  unknown  to  them.  The  prophets 
were  not  religious  individualists.  Dur- 
ing the  classical  times  of  prophetism 
they  always  dealt  with  Israel  and  Judah 
as  organic  totalities.  They  conceived 
of  their  people  as  a  gigantic  personality 
which  sinned  as  one  and  ought  to  repent 
as  one.  When  they  speak  of  their  na- 
tion as  a  virgin,  as  a  city,  as  a  vine,  they 
are  attempting  by  these  figures  of 
speech  to  express  this  organic  and  cor- 
porate social  life.  In  this  respect 
they  anticipated  a  modern  conception 
which  now  underlies  our  scientific  com- 
prehension of  social  development  and 
on  which  modern  historical  studies  are 
based.  ...  It  was  only  when  the  na- 
tional hfe  of  Israel  was  crushed  by  for- 
106 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

eign  invaders  that  the  prophets  began 
to  address  themselves  to  the  individual 
life  and  lost  the  large  horizon  of  public 
life." 

The  keynote  of  the  messages  of  the 
prophets  finds  expression  in  the  words 
of  Hosea  which  Jesus  himself  fre- 
quently quoted — *'For  I  desired  mercy, 
and  not  sacrifice ;  and  the  knowledge  of 
God  more  than  burnt  offerings." 

Isaiah  expresses  the  same  thought 
when  he  says:  "Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations;  incense  is  an  abomination 
unto  me;  the  new  moons  and  sabbaths, 
the  calling  of  assemblies,  I  cannot  away 
with;  it  is  iniquity,  even  the  solemn 
meeting.  Your  new  moons  and  your 
appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth:  they 
are  a  trouble  unto  me;  I  am  weary  to 
bear  them.  .  .  .  Wash  you,  make  you 
clean ;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings 
from  before  mine  eyes,  cease  to  do  evil ; 
learn  to  do  well;  seek  judgment,  relieve 
the  oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless, 
plead  for  the  widow." 
107 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

The  prophets  struck  at  the  very  heart 
of  wrong  and  injustice,  threw  them- 
selves against  the  mockeries  of  mere 
rituahstic  observance,  and  strenuously 
opposed  the  fallacy  that  religion  and 
ethics  can  be  separated. 

Although  social  service  was  prac- 
tically unknown  in  the  Old  Testament, 
the  social  ideal  was  not  wanting. 

Jesus  said,  "Think  not  that  I  am 
come  to  destroy  the  law,  or  the  proph- 
ets: I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfill."  In  Jesus  Christ,  we  find  not 
only  the  fulfillment  of  the  predictions 
of  the  prophets  but  in  Him  there  is  the 
fullest  and  most  perfect  realization  of 
their  teaching. 

"In  the  harmony  of  the  two  revela- 
tions," says  Professor  A.  F.  Kirk- 
patrick,  "we  shall  hear  the  voice  of  God 
speaking  to  men,  not  the  voices  of  men 
striving  to  express  their  aspirations 
after  God.  The  prophecies  are  not  hu- 
man ideals,  but  divine  ideas." 

Not  merely  prophecy,  but  Old  Testa- 
108 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

ment  law  as  well,  throbs  and  beats  with 
a  demand  for  social  justice.  If  Jesus 
"came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill,"  it 
is  unthinkable  that  he  could  have  no 
social  ideal.  What,  then,  was  the  social 
ideal  of  Jesus? 

At  the  very  outset  it  should  be 
affirmed  that  Jesus  Christ  was  in  the 
most  profound  sense  of  the  term  the 
climax  of  God's  revelation  to  this  world. 
His  supreme  purpose  was  to  reveal  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  to  lead  men 
back  to  a  glad  submission  to  his  will, 
and  to  inspire  them  with  a  holy  desire 
for  sacrificial  service  as  the  master 
motive  of  their  lives.  He  was  not 
merely  a  teacher  or  a  prophet.  He  was 
not  a  social  reformer.  We  find  the 
ideal  of  Jesus  in  the  ultimate  aim  of 
his  life.  It  is  absolutely  unfair  to  take 
here  and  there  a  quotation  from  the 
sayings  of  our  Lord  and  by  that  means 
prove  that  he  is  above  and  beyond  all 
things  a  social  reformer.  Should  any 
future  historian  write  a  biography  of 
109 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

President  Woodrow  Wilson  and  at- 
tempt to  defend  the  proposition  that  he 
was  above  all  things  else  a  war  Presi- 
dent, he  would  be  guilty  of  an  inex- 
cusable misrepresentation  of  the  man. 
That  he  has  had  a  large  and  worthy 
part  in  the  war  of  nations,  will  of 
course  be  admitted,  and  the  statement 
defended,  but  who  will  be  so  bold  as 
to  declare  that  he  was  first  and  fore- 
most a  war  President?  Future  gen- 
erations will  think  of  him  as  the  man 
who  would  "make  the  world  safe  for 
democracy,"  who  would  "make  the 
world  a  safe  place  to  live  in,"  who 
would  lead  the  great  American  repub- 
lic to  marshal  its  resources  of  men  and 
money,  in  order  that  Prussian  militar- 
ism might  be  smitten  dead  and  orga- 
nized cruelty  overthrown  and  forever 
destroyed.  But  they  will  also  think  of 
him  as  the  peace  President,  whose  chief 
aim  and  ambition  found  expression  in 
an  all-consuming  desire  for  world  peace. 
He  who  exalts  the  social  ministry  of 
110 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Jesus  at  the  expense  of  his  Messianic 
mission  hurls  insult  into  the  face  of  a 
righteous  and  loving  God,  who  sent 
("his  only  begotten  Son"  into  this  sin- 
stricken  and  lust-smitten  world  "to  seek 
and  to  save  the  lost." 

This  statement  is  made  mindful  of 
the  fact  that  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  deal  with  human 
relationships.  He  himself  had  per- 
sonal and  intimate  contact  with  the  life 
of  his  time.  He  did  not  withdraw  him- 
self from  the  world.  He  mingled  with 
men  so  freely  that  his  enemies  called 
him  "a  gluttonous  man  and  a  wine-bib- 
ber." There  were  two  outstanding 
words  he  frequently  employed  in  giv- 
ing his  message.  One  was  "Come"  and 
the  other  was  "Go."  No  one  ever 
sought  to  know  him  as  Lord  and  Mas- 
ter who  did  not  go  from  his  presence 
fired  with  a  holy  desire  to  make  others 
acquainted  with  him.  He  mingled 
among  men  and  sent  out  his  disciples 
to  do  the  same  thing.  As  a  proof  of 
111 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

the  fact  that  he  did  not  shrink  from 
coming  in  contact  with  people,  it  should 
be  remembered  that  twenty-six  of  the 
recorded  miracles  of  Christ  were  mir- 
acles of  the  healing  of  the  body,  while 
two  others  supplied  bodily  food.  He 
was  present  at  the  wedding  feast  in 
Cana  of  Galilee  and  he  dined  in  the 
home  of  the  Pharisee. 

The  social  ideal  of  Jesus  is  to  be 
found  in  His  doctrine  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  or  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He 
left  to  the  world  no  definition  of  what 
he  meant  by  the  phrase.  In  the  very 
beginning  of  his  ministry  Jesus  de- 
clared that  the  kingdom  of  God  was  at 
hand.  This  was  the  message  that  was 
upon  the  lips  of  his  disciples.  He  in- 
structed them  in  every  city  to  make  the 
same  declaration  concerning  the  King- 
dom. In  his  parables,  he  expounded 
the  Kingdom  and  made  plain  the  rela- 
tion of  men  to  it.  His  own  personal 
relation  to  it  is  that  of  Founder.  It 
is  his  kingdom  as  well  as  the  Father's 
112 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

and  he  is  Lord  and  King  over  it.  "The 
Son  of  man  shall  send  forth  his  angels, 
and  they  shall  gather  out  of  his  king- 
dom all  things  that  offend,  and  them 
that  do  iniquity."  Not  only  is  he  Lord 
of  the  Kingdom,  but  he  is  also  the  vital 
germ  of  it.  "It  is  through  vital  rela- 
tion to  him,  as  the  synoptics  and  still 
more  clearly  the  fourth  Gospel  empha- 
size— ^through  reception  of  his  Person 
and  message,  through  faith  in  him,  sur- 
render to  him,  submission  to  his  rule, 
keeping  his  commandments,  which  is 
synonymous  with  doing  the  will  of  the 
Father  through  union  with  him  as  the 
branches  and  the  vine — ^that  the  King- 
dom is  constituted."  The  Kingdom  as 
taught  by  Jesus  is  a  spiritual  kingdom. 
It  is  a  principle  working  from  within 
outward  for  the  renewal  and  trans- 
formation of  every  department  of  our 
earthly  life.  The  kingdom  of  God  may 
be  said  to  be  the  rule  and  reign  of  God's 
law  and  love  in  the  hearts  of  men. 
"The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with 
113 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

observation:  neither  shall  they  say,  Lo 
here !  or,  lo  there  I  for,  behold,  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  within  you."  The  mes- 
sage of  the  Master  was,  therefore,  not 
political,  not  economic,  but  spiritual. 
Wherever  the  kingdom  of  God  is  estab- 
lished in  the  hearts  of  men  there  is  at 
once  a  new  social  order. 

Furthermore,  his  message  was  per- 
sonal. It  had  in  it  all  the  elements  that 
make  for  a  new  social  order,  but  his 
gospel  was  primarily  an  individual  gos- 
pel. He  desired  to  plant  within  men's 
hearts  his  message,  knowing  fuU  well 
that  if  it  became  operative  it  would 
issue  in  a  social  order  that  would  make 
"all  things  new."  Most  of  his  teaching 
had  direct  bearing  upon  the  Hfe  of  the 
individual.  This  is  especially  true  of 
his  parables  and  miracles.  A  study  of 
his  conversations  with  individuals  re- 
veals the  same  principle  that  lies  at  the 
very  heart  of  his  message.  The  cry  of 
his  heart  was  "Repent!"  His  one  de- 
sire was  that  men  should  come  back  to 
114 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

God.  It  was  not  enough  that  they 
should  have  better  clothing,  better 
homes,  higher  wages — in  a  word,  that 
the  physical  conditions  of  their  lives  be 
improved.  These  were  of  great  import- 
ance. There  was  something,  however, 
more  fundamental  in  his  message  than 
any  or  all  of  these  things,  and  that  was 
that  men  everywhere  should  experience 
a  change  of  mind  and  heart  toward 
God.  He  said,  "But  seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness ; 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you."  The  Pharisees  endeavored  to 
trap  him  and  to  side-track  him.  They 
said,  "Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  unto 
Cgesar  or  not?  But  Jesus  perceived 
their  wickedness  and  said.  Why  tempt 
ye  me,  ye  hypocrites?  Show  me  the 
tribute  money.  And  they  brought  unto 
him  a  penny.  And  he  said  unto  them. 
Whose  is  this  image  and  superscription? 
They  said  unto  him,  Csesar's.  Then 
saith  he  unto  them.  Render,  therefore, 
unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are 
115 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Caesar's;  and  unto  God  the  things  that 
are  God's." 

But  the  Pharisees  were  not  satisfied 
with  this,  and  later  in  the  day  sent  a 
lawyer  who  was  intent  on  silencing 
Jesus  as  Jesus  had  silenced  the  Sad- 
ducees.  His  question  was,  "Master, 
which  is  the  great  commandment  in  the 
law?  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  hke 
unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  On  these  two  command- 
ments hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets." 

These  two  great  laws  are  so  related 
that  the  one  is  the  logical  outcome  of 
the  other.  He  who  loves  God  with  all 
his  heart  and  with  all  his  mind,  will  love 
his  neighbor  as  himself.  And  whenever 
these  two  great  laws  operate  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  you  have  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  not  until  then  can 
116 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  petition  in  the  model  prayer,  "Thy 
will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven," 
be  fully  reahzed.  Therefore,  while 
Christ's  message  throbs  and  beats  with 
social  impulse,  it  is  primarily  spiritual. 

As  a  result  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
pulsating  with  the  social  passion  as  they 
do,  the  early  Christian  Church  soon 
gave  heed  to  the  social  needs  of  the 
people.  Bunson  says:  "These  Chris- 
tians belonged  to  no  nation  and  to  no 
state,  but  their  fatherland  in  heaven  was 
to  them  a  reality,  and  the  love  of  the 
brethren,  in  truth  and  not  in  words, 
made  the  Christian  congregation  the 
foreshadowing  of  a  Christian  common- 
wealth and  model  for  all  ages  to  come." 

In  his  History  of  the  Christian 
Church,  Hurst  says:  "One  of  the  first 
evidences  of  this  fraternal  sense  is  to 
be  found  in  the  help  which  was  extended 
to  the  needy.  The  poor  in  Jerusalem, 
for  whom  Paul  collected  contributions 
from  the  Greek  Christians  in  Asia 
Minor,  were  only  the  first  to  receive  the 
117 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

benefit  of  this  early  tender  sympathy 
of  the  strong  for  the  weak.  Benefi- 
cence became  the  law,  and  not  the  im- 
pulse of  a  generous  hour,  which  entered 
into  the  whole  life  of  the  early  church. 
No  needy  society  was  forgotten  in  its 
silent  sorrow  whether  of  mere  poverty 
or  unsparing  persecution."  In  this 
they  formed  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
pagans  about  them.  During  a  pesti- 
lence in  North  Africa,  in  the  reign  of 
Gallus,  the  Christians  at  Carthage  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  brotherly 
kindness  and  by  their  sacrificial  service 
in  the  interests  of  others.  The  pagans 
deserted  their  sick  and  dying  and  re- 
fused to  touch  the  bodies  of  the  dead. 
Soon  the  streets  were  covered  with 
bodies  of  victims  of  the  scourge.  In 
many  instances  avarice  overcame  their 
fear  of  death  and  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
were  stripped  of  clothing  and  valuables. 
Cyprian  in  exhorting  his  church  to  look 
upon  the  desolating  scourge  as  a  trial 
of  their  faith  said,  "How  necessary  it 
118 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

is,  my  dear  brethren,  that  this  pestilence 
which  appears  among  us,  bringing  with 
it  death  and  destruction,  should  try- 
men's  souls — should  show  whether  the 
healthy  will  take  care  of  the  sick; 
whether  relations  have  a  tender  regard 
for  each  other;  whether  masters  will 
take  home  their  sick  servants."  He 
was  not  satisfied,  however,  with  a  mere 
statement,  but  went  a  step  further, 
called  his  church  together  and  addressed 
them  in  the  following  words :  "If  we  do 
good  only  to  our  own,  we  do  no  more 
than  the  pubHcans  and  heathens.  But 
if  we  are  the  children  of  God,  who 
makes  his  sun  rise  and  sends  his  rain  on 
the  just  and  on  the  unjust,  who  scat- 
ters his  gifts  and  blessings  not  barely 
on  his  own,  but  even  on  those  whose 
thoughts  are  far  from  him,  we  must 
show  it  by  our  actions,  striving  to  be 
perfect,  even  as  our  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect,  blessing  those  that  curse  us, 
and  doing  good  to  them  that  despite- 
fuUy  use  us."  As  a  result  of  his  ap- 
119 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

peal  to  the  church  the  members  im- 
mediately divided  the  work  among 
themselves.  The  rich  gave  of  their  sub- 
stance, the  poor  contributed  their  labor ; 
and  in  a  short  time,  the  bodies  which 
filled  the  streets  were  buried  and  the 
city  delivered  from  the  danger  of  a  uni- 
versal infection. 

One  of  the  most  concise,  as  well  as 
one  of  the  most  complete,  statements 
of  the  effect  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
upon  the  social  order  is  that  given  by 
Schaff :  "Under  the  inspiring  influence 
of  Christ's  teaching  and  example,  the 
Christian  Church  asserted  the  individ- 
ual rights  of  man ;  recognized  the  divine 
image  in  every  rational  being;  taught 
the  common  creation,  and  the  common 
redemption,  and  the  destination  of  all 
for  inmiortality  and  glory;  raised  the 
humble  and  lowly;  comforted  the 
prisoner  and  captive,  the  stranger  and 
exile;  proclaimed  chastity,  as  a  funda- 
mental virtue,  elevated  woman  to  a 
dignity  and  equality  with  man;  upheld 
120 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie;  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  Christian  family 
and  home;  moderated  the  evils  and  un- 
dermined the  foundations  of  slavery; 
opposed  polygamy  and  concubinage; 
denounced  the  exposure  of  children  as 
murder;  made  relentless  war  on  the 
bloody  games  of  the  arena  and  circus, 
on  the  shocking  indecencies  of  the 
theater,  and  on  cruelty,  oppression,  and 
vice;  infused  into  a  heartless  and  love- 
less world  the  spirit  of  love  and  brother- 
hood; transformed  sinners  into  saints, 
frail  women  into  heroines,  and  lit  up 
the  darkness  of  the  tomb  by  the  bright 
ray  of  unending  bhss  of  heaven." 

The  teachings  of  Jesus  have  hterally 
saturated  literature,  created  new  social 
ideals,  influenced  the  education  of 
statesmen  and  public  leaders,  and  have 
dominated  the  social  conscience 
throughout  the  world.  The  Christian 
Church  has  passed  through  many  crises. 
She  was  compelled  to  determine  what 
her  attitude  should  be  toward  the 
121 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Roman  empire  and  the  Greek  philoso- 
phy. In  the  Middle  Ages  she  had  to 
face  the  question  of  her  relation  to  those 
processes  which  were  bringing  to  exist- 
ence a  new  Europe.  During  the 
Renaissance  she  was  confronted  by  the 
problem  of  the  new  learning.  In  the 
Reformation  she  struggled  with  the 
question  of  her  relation  to  the  new  in- 
dividualism in  religion  and  politics,  and 
in  the  period  of  revolutions,  wrestled 
with  the  theories  of  natural  rights  and 
vested  privileges.  These  were  all  great 
crises,  but  none  were  more  vital  to  the 
well-being  of  the  world  than  that 
through  which  she  is  now  passing.  The 
past  twenty-five  years  have  witnessed 
an  earnest  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
church  to  recover  the  social  impulse  of 
her  earliest  days.  Prior  to  this  time  she 
was  in  grave  danger  of  losing  her  social 
vision.  With  changing  social  condi- 
tions, the  church  too  frequently  with- 
drew from  the  field  and  sought  "a  more 
favorable  location."  Instead  of  placing 
122 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

herself  in  a  position  whereby  she  could 
understand  and  sympathize  with  the 
masses,  again  and  again  the  church 
moved  away,  leaving  the  community 
and  its  far-reaching  interests  to  the 
mercy  of  street  preachers  and  agitators, 
whose  ideals  were  in  direct  antagonism 
to  those  for  which  the  church  stands. 

The  policy  of  moving  the  church 
away  from  the  densely  populated  por- 
tions of  the  great  cities,  which,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  the  church 
seems  to  have  adopted,  undoubtedly  ac- 
counts, in  part  at  least,  for  the  appall- 
ing fact  that  out  of  the  one  hundred 
million  who  compose  the  population  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  no  less 
than  sixty  million  report  themselves  as 
having  no  connection  whatever  with  any 
church,  either  Protestant  or  Roman 
Catholic. 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  however, 

the  church  has  been  making  a  noble 

effort  to  live  up  to  her  earliest  social 

ideals,  adapted,  of  course,  to  the  needs 

123 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

of  the  living  present.  It  may  safely  be 
said  that  the  dominant  activity  of 
modern  Christianity  is  social.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  Protestantism  in 
Great  Britain  and  America. 

The  social  ministry  of  the  church  is 
a  gracious  one.  Schools,  hospitals,  and 
homes  for  the  aged  have  been  erected 
and  endowed.  Nurses  have  been  trained 
and  have  gone  into  the  homes  of  the 
poor,  ministering  gladly  and  without 
charge  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Christ. 
The  blind  have  been  taught  to  read  and 
the  deaf  to  speak.  Waifs  of  the  city 
streets  have  been  gathered  into  homes 
and  provided  with  all  the  blessings  of 
the  more  favored  classes.  The  church 
has  led  in  campaigns  against  the  liquor 
traffic  and  has  conducted  moral  reform 
movements  that  have  put  red-hght  dis- 
tricts out  of  business  and  reduced  the 
possibility  of  graft  in  public  officials  to 
a  minimum.  It  has  organized  social 
settlements  and  other  philanthropic  in- 
stitutions of  various  kinds.  To  mention 
124 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

all  the  activities  in  which  the  church  is 
engaged  in  carrying  on  her  social  min- 
istry would  require  time  and  space  to 
no  purpose. 

The  Church  of  God  must  not  be 
satisfied  with  alleviating  physical  suf- 
fering and  in  temporarily  supplying 
the  needs  of  the  poor.  Never  before 
has  she  made  as  earnest  an  eifort  to 
discover  the  causes  of  misery,  and  suf- 
fering, and  social  discontent  as  she  is 
making  to-day.  It  is  from  this  sympa- 
thetic standpoint  that  she  is  approach- 
ing the  labor  question. 

The  present-day  church  without 
some  kind  of  a  social  program  is  a  back 
nimiber.  Most  ministers  reahze,  or  are 
coming  to  realize,  that  unless  the  church 
has  some  kind  of  a  social  program  it 
will  make  but  scant  impression  upon 
the  community,  and  its  influence  will  be 
more  or  less  a  negligible  quantity. 

In  their  eagerness  to  develop  a  social 
ministry  for  the  church,  large  numbers 
of  persons  have  unfortunately  become 
125 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

extremists.  They  have  conceived  of 
the  social  movement  as  it  is  related  to 
Christianity  in  a  secular  rather  than  in 
a  spiritual  sense.  Their  plans  for  social 
betterment  are  an  end  in  themselves 
rather  than  a  means  to  an  end.  The 
passion  for  the  spiritual  regeneration 
of  men  and  women  is  noticeably  absent. 
The  personal  note  of  appeal  for  men 
and  women  to  surrender  their  lives  to 
Jesus  Christ  as  Lord  and  Saviour  is 
never  heard.  I  have  listened  eagerly 
and  sympathetically  to  noted  lecturers, 
who  are  known  as  social-service  experts. 
They  have  shown  a  sympathetic  grasp 
of  their  subject  and  have  explained  in 
very  clear  terms  what  they  believe  to 
be  the  cause  of  social  discontent,  but 
they  have  said  nothing  about  the  per- 
sonal, divine  Christ  and  his  power  to 
transform  the  lives  of  men.  It  is  at  this 
most  vital  point  that  they  have  failed. 
In  like  manner  attempts  have  been 
made  to  carry  on  church  work  purely 
from  the  standpoint  of  social  service. 
126 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

In  order  to  secure  the  attendance  of 
large  numbers  of  people  methods  have 
been  adopted  that  have  been  anything 
but  creditable  to  the  Church  of  God. 
The  passion  has  not  been  for  souls,  but 
for  crowds.  The  entertainment  fea- 
ture not  infrequently  becomes  so  promi- 
nent that  the  church  itself  is  trans- 
formed into  an  ecclesiastical  vaudeville 
and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  rele- 
gated to  a  place  of  secondary  import- 
ance. Says  Shailer  Mathews:  To 
make  a  church  a  religionless  mixture  of 
civil-service  reform,  debating  societies, 
gymnasiums,  suppers,  concerts,  stere- 
opticon  lectures,  good  advice,  refined 
negro  ministrel  shows,  and  dramatic 
entertainments  is  to  bring  it  into  com- 
petition with  the  variety  theater,  and 
when  the  masses  have  to  choose  between 
that  sort  of  church  and  its  rival,  if  they 
have  any  sense  left  within  their  per- 
plexed heads,  they  will  choose  the 
variety  theater.  That  at  least  is  per- 
forming its  proper  social  function." 
127 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

What  this  old  world  needs  most  is 
a  fresh  realization  of  the  fact  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  divine  Saviour  from  sin. 
Much  is  being  said  about  the  period  of 
reconstruction.  Some  statesmen,  pub- 
licists, and  theologians  are  having  much 
to  say  about  the  new  religion  that  is  to 
be  after  the  war.  That  there  will  be 
new  conditions,  no  informed  person  can 
doubt.  The  world  will  never  be  what  it 
was  prior  to  the  year  1914.  In  a  very 
real  sense  of  the  term  "old  things  have 
passed  away."  The  world  has  become 
a  brotherhood.  Race  prejudice,  though 
by  no  means  dead,  is  being  greatly 
modified.  A  common  peril  and  a  com- 
mon pm-pose  to  be  delivered  from  the 
common  peril  have  brought  many  na- 
tions together  in  the  bond  of  a  common 
brotherhood.  But  the  prophets  of  a 
new  religion  will  find  that  the  days  of 
peace  will  hold  no  new  religion,  but 
that  they  will  contain  a  purified  Chris- 
tianity. Already  it  has  been  clearly  re- 
vealed that  the  soldier  on  the  battle- 
128 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

field  wants  to  know  more  about  God. 
He  is  not  concerned  about  ecclesiastical 
strife  and  denominational  differences 
and  time-worn  platitudes.  The  hunger 
of  his  soul  is  expressed  in  the  words  of 
the  dying  soldier  in  the  trench,  who,  a 
few  seconds  before  he  breathed  his  last, 
turned  to  a  comrade  and  said,  "What 
can  you  tell  me  about  God,  quick?" 

"A  student  of  world  problems  re- 
cently visited  the  battlefront  in  France 
and  returned  to  say  to  his  countrymen: 
'Here  in  France  among  the  soldiers  a 
new  and  elemental  conception  of  reli- 
gion has  developed.  It  has  little  creed, 
and  certainly  no  sectarianism;  ecclesi- 
astics back  home  might  be  startled  into 
something  like  awakeness  could  they 
but  reahze  how  little  the  things  that 
bulk  so  large  in  their  life  mean  to  the 
soldier.  These  soldiers  care  nothing  for 
the  differences  that  divide  Episcopa- 
lians and  Methodists  and  Presbyterians 
and  Baptists.  They  are  interested  in 
God,  and  whether  or  not  he  answers 
129 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

prayers,  and  the  relation  between  him 
and  the  great  considerations  of  right- 
eousness for  which  the  Allies  stand.  As 
for  the  shop  talk  of  the  churches,  over 
here  they  confess  that  they  never  were 
in  the  habit  of  paying  any  attention  to 
that.' 

"Three  words  characterize  the  reli- 
gion of  the  American  soldier:  sim- 
plicity, brotherhood,  and  service.  Faith 
is  stripped  to  the  buff  in  the  trenches. 
Nobody  cares  for  any  elaborate  expres- 
sion of  belief.  These  men  believe  they 
are  doing  their  bit  for  God  when  they 
help  break  the  grip  of  the  Hun  upon 
the  earth.  They  are  convinced  that  the 
essential  righteousness  of  our  cause 
makes  it  God's  cause.  If  we  have  much 
at  stake  in  this  war,  God  has  more. 
Therefore,  they  are  serving  him  when 
they  go  ahead  in  uncomplaining  loyalty 
to  do  their  part  in  winning  the  war. 
Fidelity  to  the  task  is  the  first  expres- 
sion of  worship." 

The  nations  of  the  world  are  giving 
130 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

to  religion  a  larger  place  than  they  did 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  That 
is  especially  true  of  America,  Great 
Britain,  and  France. 

These  days  of  the  reconstruction 
offer  the  church  her  greatest  opportu- 
nity. In  order  to  fulfill  her  mission  she 
must  have  with  the  social  vision  and 
program  that  spiritual  appeal  which 
will  present  the  living  Christ  as  Lord 
and  Master. 

Preachers  and  churches  must  be 
ready  for  the  millions  of  soldiers  who 
will  return  to  peaceful  pursuits  when 
peace  is  actually  established.  They  will 
return  with  their  new  experiences  and 
broadened  and  deepened  conceptions  of 
religion  and  brotherhood;  of  God  the 
Father  and  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son;  of 
society,  the  church,  and  the  nation. 
When  that  time  comes  the  preacher  of 
the  gospel  must  be  ready.  His  message 
must  be  real.  He  must  speak  from  ex- 
perience— ^the  experience  of  the  new 
birth.  He  must  absolutely  believe  that 
131 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  men  be- 
cause He  is  his  Saviour,  and  his  whole 
life  must  give  evidence  of  a  great  heart- 
ache that  will  not  cease  until  he  sees 
men  and  women  accepting  Him  as 
"Lord  to  the  Glory  of  God  the  Father." 
The  period  of  reconstruction  is  here, 
and  the  age  demands  the  practical  ap- 
plication of  the  social  gospel  to  the 
needs  of  the  time.  But  human  nature 
is  the  same  the  world  over  and  it  will 
never  outgrow  its  need  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  divine  Son  of  God,  the  personal 
Saviour  of  men.  Changing  social  con- 
ditions may  cut  new  channels.  The  pos- 
sibilities for  serving  humanity  will  be 
greatly  enlarged.  But  no  program, 
social  or  educational,  can  ever  lessen 
the  importance  or  do  away  with  the 
need  for  God  to  perform  his  transform- 
ing work  in  the  hearts  of  men. 
Heredity,  social  environment,  and  edu- 
cation are  of  exceeding  great  import- 
ance, but  that  which  is  of  still  greater 
importance,  yea,  that  which  is  of  su- 
132 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

premely  great  importance  is  that  men 
everywhere  shall  know  Jesus  Christ  as 
a  personal  Saviour. 

God  demands  of  his  church  in  this 
new  day  an  apostolic  faith  and  a  holy 
passion  to  see  men  saved  from  sin. 

May  the  whole  church  gird  herself 
for  the  new  and  glorious  task! 


133 


EVANGELISM    IN    THE    SUN- 
DAY NIGHT  SERVICE 


EVANGELISM    IN    THE    SUN- 
DAY NIGHT  SERVICE 

The  Sunday  night  service  is  becom- 
ing increasingly  a  problem.  With 
many  pastors  the  question  is  not  what 
kind  of  service  shall  be  held,  but 
whether  there  shall  be  held  any  service 
whatever. 

Large  numbers  of  churches  have 
utterly  abandoned  this  very  important 
service,  or  have  merged  it  into  the 
young  people's  vesper  service.  Of  the 
many  reasons  assigned,  the  following 
are  most  frequently  heard:  It  is  impos- 
sible in  these  days  for  a  minister  to  pre- 
pare for  the  same  congregation  two 
sermons  a  week,  that  will  command  the 
attention  and  respect  of  intelligent  and 
well-informed  people;  the  second 
preaching  service  taxes  unduly  the 
strength  of  those  who,  for  one  reason 
137 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

or  another,  feel  obligated  to  attend  the 
morning  service  and  also  the  Sunday 
school;  the  social  Hfe  is  such  that  large 
numbers  of  church  members  devote 
Sunday  afternoon  and  evening  to  visit- 
ing, and  believe  that  is  sufficient  excuse 
for  not  attending  the  evening  preach- 
ing service;  many  people  live  at  such 
great  distances  from  the  church  where 
they  have  their  membership  that  they 
cannot  afford  the  expense  of  two  trips 
for  the  family;  a  majority  of  church 
members  do  not  want  a  second  preach- 
ing service  and  will  not  support  it. 

In  addition  to  the  reasons  above 
stated,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
homes  of  many  church  members  are 
well  supplied  with  the  best  current  lit- 
erature, both  secular  and  religious,  and 
that  Sunday  evening  affords  an  excel- 
lent opportunity  for  reading  and  con- 
versation. It  also  affords  an  opportu- 
nity to  rest  before  entering  upon  a 
strenuous  and  nerve-racking  week  of 
business  that  is  just  ahead. 
138 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

These  are  not  imaginary,  but  real 
difficulties,  as  every  pastor  well  knows. 
The  question  of  first  importance  is. 
Does  the  Sunday  night  preaching  serv- 
ice meet  a  real  need  in  the  lives  of  any 
considerable  number  of  people? 

An  experience  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  years  in  the  pastorate,  a  close 
study  of  the  subject,  and  an  opportu- 
nity for  wide  observation  leads  me  to 
say  that  there  is  a  crying  need  for  the 
Sunday  night  service. 

During  one  of  my  pastorates  there 
was  a  gentleman  who  attended  the  Sun- 
day night  service  regularly,  but  was 
seldom,  if  ever,  present  in  any  morning 
service.  One  day  in  conversation  with 
him  I  said:  "I  see  you  regularly  in  the 
evening  service,  but  never  in  the  morn- 
ing. Is  it  impossible  for  you  to  be  pres- 
ent at  the  Sunday  morning  service?" 

He  replied,  "I  am,  unless  ill,  always 

present  at  the  evening  service,  but  I  am 

never  present  in  the  morning."     He 

then  proceeded  to  state  his  reasons.  He 

139 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

is  unable  to  close  his  place  of  business 
before  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday- 
night,  and  often  it  is  eleven-thirty  or 
twelve  o'clock  before  the  last  customer 
leaves.  The  store  must  then  be  put  to 
rights  and  everything  made  ready  for 
business  Monday  morning.  It  is,  con- 
sequently, very  late  when  he  reaches  his 
home.  Tired,  and  well-nigh  exhausted, 
he  retires  feeling  that  he  is  justified  in 
sleeping  until  a  late  hour  Sunday  morn- 
ing. This  is  not  an  extreme  case.  It 
can  be  duphcated  in  the  membership  of 
many  other  churches,  especially  those 
of  the  cities.  Many  mothers  and  house- 
wives offer  just  as  reasonable  excuses 
for  not  attending  the  morning  service, 
and  wage-earning  women  excuse  them- 
selves from  church  attendance  Sunday 
mornings  for  reasons  equally  as  valid. 
Furthermore,  in  every  community  there 
are  large  numbers  of  persons  unat- 
tached to  any  church,  and  if  they  attend 
church  service  at  all,  it  is  usually  in  the 
evening.  If  it  were  not  for  the  eve- 
140 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

ning  service,  many  young  people  in- 
stead of  being  found  in  the  church 
would  be  in  the  theater,  the  "movie," 
or  in  some  other  place  of  amusement. 

The  mere  recital  of  these  facts  is 
ample  support  of  the  statement  that 
there  is  a  real  need  for  the  Sunday  night 
service/ 

There  is  another  outstanding  reason 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Sunday 
evening  service.  It  affords  the  best 
opportunity  of  the  week  for  the  minis- 
ter to  reach  the  nonchurchgoing  and 
unconverted  people  of  the  community. 

Every  minister  who  preaches  to  even 
fairly  large  Sunday  evening  congrega- 
tions is  heard  by  more  unconverted  peo- 
ple in  one  such  service  than  in  several 
Sunday  morning  services.  It  is  the 
preacher's  greatest  opportunity  of  the 
week.  It  should  be  a  fitting  climax  of 
all  that  has  preceded.  It  is  the  time 
when  the  preacher  should  go  a-fishing. 

The  morning  service  is  the  preacher's 

^  See  Methodist  Review. 

141 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

opportunity  to  instruct  and  teach  his 
people  in  the  things  of  God.  In  a  word, 
to  build  up  believers  in  the  most  holy 
faith,  to  comfort  them  in  the  gospel,  and 
to  send  them  back  to  their  homes 
"rooted  and  grounded  in  love."  It 
should  be  a  stately  service,  but  not  lack- 
ing in  sympathy  and  power.  The  eve- 
ning service  should  be  less  formal  than 
that  of  the  morning  and  should  be  brief, 
bright,  and  brotherly. 

Undoubtedly  the  question  that  is 
upon  the  lips  of  many  preachers  when 
the  importance  of  the  Sunday  evening 
service  is  urged  is.  How  can  a  hearing 
on  Sunday  night  be  secured? 

Here  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  ques- 
tion. Many  preachers  are  too  quick  in 
beating  a  retreat.  In  many  instances 
the  surrender  is  made  before  the  battle 
is  on.  Too  many  throw  up  their  hands 
and  say,  "It  is  simply  impossible  to 
maintain  an  evening  service.  The  peo- 
ple do  not  want,  will  not  support  it, 
and  that  ends  it."  We  should  not  lose 
142 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

sight  of  the  truth  that  nothing  is  im- 
possible until  it  is  too  hard  for  God  to 
do. 

One  thing  is  certain,  and  that  is,  if 
the  Sunday  night  service  is  to  be  a  suc- 
cess, it  will  require  work — hard  work. 
It  matters  not  who  the  minister  is,  or 
what  kind  of  church  he  is  serving, 
whether  it  be  the  rural  church,  the 
church  in  a  small  town  or  village,  the 
small  church  in  a  large  city,  or  the  great 
church  in  the  heart  of  the  metropolis, 
he  will  discover,  if  he  has  not  already 
done  so,  that  in  these  days  it  is  no  small 
task  to  maintain  for  any  great  length 
of  time  a  sustained  interest  in  the  eve- 
ning service.  Sometimes  it  is  said  that 
it  does  not  matter  who  is  the  pastor  of 
such  and  such  a  church,  the  congrega- 
tions are  always  large.  In  the  words 
of  the  lamented  Professor  S.  F.  Up- 
ham,  "I  deny  the  allegation  and  defy 
the  allegator." 

He  who  succeeds  will  do  so  at  the 
cost  of  hard,  patient,  and  persistent 
143 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

work.  It  will  be  at  the  expense  of 
brain  sweat  and  heart  agony.     What 

^^^*-  "Be  strong! 

We  are  not  here  to  play,  to  dream,  to  drift, 
We  have  hard  work  to  do,  and  loads  to  lift. 
Shun  not   the  struggle,   face  it,   'tis   God's 
gift."^ 

Four  things  suggest  themselves  as  a 
possible  solution  of  this  problem.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  even  these  may 
exist  under  certain  conditions,  and  still 
the  Sunday  night  service  not  be  what 
we  could  desire.  However,  where  the 
Sunday  night  service  is  successful,  these 
four  elements  will  not  be  lacking. 

First.  The  minister  must  believe  in 
the  importance  of  the  service.  He  can- 
not afford  to  regard  it  as  of  secondary 
importance  to  the  morning  service.  If 
he  does  not  believe  in  its  importance, 
the  sermon  will  show  it.  The  people 
will  be  quick  to  detect  the  pastor's  in- 
difference,  and  the  more  thoughtful  of 

1  From  Thoughts  for  Every-Day  Living,  copjo-ight, 
1901,  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  By  permission  of 
the  publishers. 

144 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

his  congregation  will  observe  that  the 
sermon  lacks  thoroughness  of  prepara- 
tion and  earnestness  in  dehvery.  As  a 
result  the  indifference  of  the  people  will 
be  manifold  more  pronounced  than  the 
preacher's,  and  ere  long  large  numbers 
of  church  members,  even  those  who  are 
30  situated  as  to  be  able  to  attend  the 
evening  service  as  well  as  the  morning, 
will  be  conspicuous  for  their  absence. 
As  a  rule,  in  church  work  people  do  not 
give  much  thought  or  attention  to  the 
things  in  which  the  pastor  does  not 
profoundly  beheve.  Many  an  evening 
preaching  service  has  struggled  for 
existence  or  died  out  entirely  because 
the  pastor  failed  to  impress  the  people 
that  he  believed  profoundly  in  its  im- 
portance. The  pastor  is  the  key  to  the 
situation,  and  no  church  can  hope  for 
a  large  and  enthusiastic  evening  service 
unless  he  heartily  believes  in  it.  Once 
convinced  that  the  evening  service  is  of 
vital  importance  and  that  it  offers  a 
great  evangeHstic  opportunity,  the 
145 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

pastor  will  take  new  interest  in  the 
preparation  of  his  sermons.  His  en- 
thusiasm will  inspire  the  people,  and 
;soon  the  service  will  attract  those  who 
had  lost  all  interest  in  it  or  who  had 
given  it  no  thought  whatsoever. 

Thus  convinced  of  its  importance, 
the  pastor  will  plan  to  give  the  people 
something  to  which  they  may  look  for- 
ward. To  that  end  the  preacher  must 
choose  his  subjects  and  select  his  themes 
with  greatest  care.  They  should  be 
biblical  of  course,  but  they  should  also 
reveal  the  preacher's  knowledge  of  and 
interest  in  the  things  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  Not  infrequently 
do  we  see  in  the  church  notices  which 
appear  in  the  daily  press  subjects  that 
cause  disgust.  Many  times  the  subjects 
announced  are  an  embarrassment  to  the 
supporting  members  of  the  church 
rather  than  an  inspiration.  In  their 
efforts  to  avoid  the  commonplace  in  the 
selection  of  subjects  some  preachers  go 
too  far  the  other  way.  The  result  is 
146 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

many  of  the  more  devout  church  mem- 
bers are  grieved,  while  even  the  uncon- 
verted and  vi^orldly  turn  away  with  a 
sneer.  The  subject  of  the  sermon  must 
show  strength,  must  be  dignified,  and 
must  relate  practically  to  the  life  of  to- 
day. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  announce  the 
subject  of  a  sermon  at  least  a  week  in 
advance.  Some  preachers  do  not  ap- 
prove of  this  method,  and  never  an- 
nounce any  subject.  They  believe  the 
people  should  be  trained  to  attend 
church  for  worship,  and  not  simply  to 
listen  to  a  sermon.  There  is  much  that 
can  be  said  in  favor  of  this.  We  are, 
however,  hving  in  days  of  tremendous 
stir.  Few  preachers  can  command  at- 
tention to  any  great  extent  simply  by 
announcing  that  there  will  be  preach- 
ing services  at  a  certain  hour.  In  order 
to  have  a  hearing  on  Sunday  night,  the 
preacher  should  command  the  attention 
of  people  by  the  very  subjects  he 
chooses. 

147 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

One  of  the  most  successful  methods 
for  maintaining  constant  and  increas- 
ing interest  in  this  service  is  for  the  pas- 
tor to  dehver  from  two  to  three  series 
of  sermons  throughout  the  year.  At 
other  times  he  may  speak  on  the  sub- 
jects of  compelling  public  interest  to 
the  community  or  nation.  Special  men- 
tion should  be  made  of  such  sermons 
or  series  of  sermons,  from  one  to  two 
weeks  in  advance,  and  whenever  pos- 
sible some  line  of  thought  should  be 
suggested  from  the  pulpit  which  will  be 
given  special  emphasis  in  a  single  ser- 
mon, or  series  of  sermons.  This  will 
usually  command  the  attention  of  the 
people,  will  give  them  something  to 
which  they  may  look  forward.  A  wise 
use  of  printer's  ink  may  be  a  great  fac- 
tor in  helping  to  maintain  the  Sunday 
night  service.  There  is  much  money 
wasted,  however,  in  the  efforts  men 
make  to  advertise.  A  little  of  the  right 
kind  of  publicity  goes  a  long  ways.  A 
small  fortune  may  be  spent  in  the 
148 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

wrong  kind  of  advertising,  and  it  will 
avail  nothing. 

Whatever  the  plan  adopted  in  order 
to  bring  the  work  of  the  church  to  the 
attention  of  the  community,  all  such 
efforts  will  be  futile  unless  the  minister 
believes  tremendously  in  the  importance 
of  the  Sunday  night  service. 

Second,  The  preacher  must  beheve 
the  gospel  he  preaches.  Professor 
Shailer  Mathews  raised  the  question, 
"How  shall  we  preach  this  gospel  of 
the  risen  Christ?'*  and  answers  it  as  fol- 
lows: "Above  all  else,  positively;  with 
a  contagious  conviction.  A  man  will 
neither  fear  nor  love  a  God  under  in- 
vestigation. With  the  passion  of  a 
moral  physician  who  knows  that  sin  is 
a  deadly  curse — ^not  a  term  of  the 
schoolman.  And,  up  to  the  utmost  limit 
of  our  convictions,  with  an  emphasis 
upon  both  its  experimental  and  its  his- 
torical elements."  It  would  be  difficult 
to  improve  upon  this  answer.  How- 
ever, unless  the  minister  has  an  un- 
149 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

wavering  belief  in  the  gospel  he 
preaches,  it  will  be  impossible  for  him 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  answer. 
A  firm  belief  is  of  supreme  importance. 
He  who  gives  his  people  to  understand 
that  the  Bible  is  merely  a  collection  of 
folklore,  myths,  and  legends  need  not 
look  for  a  large  measure  of  success  in 
the  Christian  ministry. 

Attacks  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
Virgin  birth  and  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord  are  being  renewed  to-day  in  the 
light  of  modern  science.  Instead  of 
being  uncompromising  defenders  of  the 
faith,  and  saying  with  the  apostle  Paul, 
"I  am  set  for  the  defense  of  the  gos- 
pel," there  are  those  who  deny  the 
bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
with  Professor  Lake  regard  as  myths, 
pure  and  simple,  the  accounts  contained 
in  the  Gospels  of  the  resurrection  of 
Christ's  body  from  the  grave.  In  the 
same  manner  do  they  regard  the  Virgin 
birth  of  our  Lord. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  questions 
150 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

before  the  church  to-day,  according  to 
Professor  James  Orr,  is  the  admissi- 
bility of  the  supernatural  in  the  form 
of  miracle.  This  question,  from  the 
standpoint  of  modern  scientific  thought, 
is  worrying  many  Christian  ministers. 
It  has  so  shaken  the  faith  of  some 
that  their  preaching  is  anything  but 
positive. 

Then  there  are  those  who  are  placing 
unnecessarily,  in  some  instances,  ex- 
treme emphasis  upon  "the  psychology 
of  conversion."  There  are  those  who 
are  filling  "the  minds  of  the  uncon- 
verted with  the  notion  that  at  any  time 
they  may  proceed  along  lines  of  psy- 
chology or  New  Thought  to  all  that  is 
necessary."  They  hasten  to  know  what 
some  professor  of  physical  or  mental 
science  has  to  say  about  conversion  and 
religious  experience  and  then  thrust  his 
views  upon  congregations  that  are 
hungry  for  the  gospel.  The  preaching 
of  such  men  lacks  the  essential,  positive 
note,  and  raises  in  the  minds  of  the 
151 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

hearers  the  question,  What  is  the 
preacher's  attitude  toward  the  Bible  as 
the  Word  of  God?  Does  he  really  be- 
lieve the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ?  It 
has  been  well  said  that  "modern  theo- 
logians who  sneer  at  the  old  religion, 
and  substitute  for  the  old  gospel  a  sys- 
tem of  comfortable  ethical  self -culture, 
are  emptying  churches  to-day."  Such 
preachers  can  never  have  a  large  hear- 
ing in  the  Christian  Church,  and  they 
are  usually  the  first  to  give  up  the  Sun- 
day night  service.  He  who  would  main- 
tain constant  interest  in  the  Sunday 
night  service  must  preach  the  Word 
of  God  with  positiveness  and,  to  use 
again  the  words  of  Professor  Mathews, 
"with  the  passion  of  a  moral  physician 
who  knows  that  sin  is  a  deadly  curse 
— not  a  term  of  the  schoolman."  He 
must  beheve  the  gospel  he  preaches  and 
preach  the  gospel  he  believes.  People 
will  desire  to  hear  such  a  man. 

Third,     The   Sunday  night  service 
must  be  preeminently  evangelistic.    It 
152 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

should  be  the  climax  of  the  week's  work. 
All  the  services  of  the  week  should  lead 
up  to  it.  There  should  be  in  it  at  all 
times  the  spirit  of  invitation.  The 
stranger  should  not  only  be  informed 
that  he  is  welcome,  but  he  should  very 
plainly  and  cordially  be  given  to  un- 
derstand that  his  presence  is  earnestly 
desired.  The  reason  evangehsm  in  the 
Sunday  night  service  is  not  more  suc- 
cessful is  because  too  frequently  the  in- 
vitation to  accept  Christ  as  a  personal 
Saviour  from  sin  is  not  given  with  a 
moral  urgency  that  carries  with  it  con- 
viction. If  the  preacher  enters  the  pul- 
pit more  concerned  about  his  own  repu- 
tation than  for  the  salvation  of  men, 
his  message  will  lack  both  power  and 
appeal.  People  will  come  to  hear  the 
man  who  preaches  the  gospel  without 
frills.  The  average  person  who  attends 
the  Sunday  night  service  does  not  care 
to  hear  a  discourse  on  John  Ruskin,  nor 
an  essay  on  Dante.  It  is  not  for  the 
purpose  of  being  entertained  or  amused 
153 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

that  he  has  found  his  way  to  the  church. 
For  entertainment  he  can  go  to  the 
theater.  The  average  person  is  hungry 
— hungry  for  the  bread  of  Hfe.  He  will 
hear  with  gladness  of  heart  the  mes- 
sage of  Jesus  Christ  to  a  sin-ruined 
world,  and  he  will  be  satisfied  with 
nothing  else.  Alas  for  the  minister  or 
ministry  that  gives  a  stone  to  the  hun- 
gry soul  that  asks  for  bread!  People 
want  the  gospel — they  yearn  for  the 
Christ  of  the  ages. 

Of  all  the  church  services  the  Sun- 
day night  service  should  be  a  time  when 
the  unsaved  can  most  easily  find  Christ 
as  their  divine  Saviour  from  sin.  An 
occasional  invitation  to  forsake  sin  and 
accept  Christ  as  a  personal  Saviour  will 
not  sufiice.  There  is  great  gain  in  not 
only  making  the  people  familiar  with 
definite  appeals  to  the  unsaved,  but  in 
doing  so  with  such  regularity  that  it 
will  become  as  much  a  part  of  the  serv- 
ice as  praying  or  singing.  Further- 
more, the  preacher  must  come  to  the 
154 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

place  where  in  giving  the  invitation  he 
will  do  so  in  faith  believing.  Nothing 
so  strengthens  faith  in  this  kind  of  serv- 
ice as  personal  work.  He  who  has 
talked  face  to  face  with  men  during  the 
week,  presenting  Christ  as  the  personal 
Saviour,  will  find  that  it  is  not  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  secure  the  attendance  of 
a  goodly  number  of  such  persons  at  the 
Sunday  night  service.  Their  very 
presence  will  be  an  inspiration  to  the 
preacher  and  he  will  soon  discover  that 
his  appeal  to  the  unsaved  is  charac- 
terized by  an  earnestness  and  tender- 
ness that  are  well-nigh  irresistible. 

Of  course  the  best  method  for  cast- 
ing the  net  should  be  studied  and  em- 
ployed. In  doing  this  great  care  should 
be  exercised  to  avoid  embarrassing  those 
who  make  no  profession  of  Christ. 
Nothing  is  more  unchristian  than  to 
"set  traps"  for  people.  A  man  may, 
by  such  method,  be  caught  once,  but  he 
will  see  to  it  that  he  is  not  caught  the 
second  time. 

155 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

The  invitation  to  accept  Christ 
should  not  be  given  in  the  same  way- 
night  after  night.  It  is  well  to  vary  it. 
Use  the  altar,  the  inquiry  room,  and 
the  after  meeting.  Give  the  invitation 
by  the  use  of  carefully  selected  hymns. 
Study  where  and  how  to  use  them.  Use 
any  method  that  will  bring  men  and 
women  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  was  not  that  the  man  who 
was  "borne  of  four"  was  let  down 
through  a  hole  in  the  roof.  It  might 
just  as  well  have  been  a  hole  in  the 
wall.  The  business  of  the  "four"  was 
to  get  the  poor  fellow  to  the  feet  of  the 
Saviour.  Whatever  be  the  method,  the 
preacher's  aim  should  always  be  to 
bring  about  a  spiritual  crisis  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  unconverted 
and  the  Sunday  night  service  furnishes 
him  his  best  opportunity. 

A  sermon  occasionally  on  some  sub- 
ject of  vital  concern  to  the  community, 
or  to  the  nation,  may  be  perfectly  in 
order,  and  not  out  of  harmony  with  the 
156 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

plan  of  continuous  evangelism.  Fol- 
lowing a  sermon  on  any  such  subject, 
an  invitation  to  the  unsaved  to  accept 
Christ  would  be  plainly  unwise.  Such 
sermons  will  not  be  so  frequent,  how- 
ever, as  to  interfere  with  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  aggressive  evangehsm. 

An  investigation  of  the  plans  and 
methods  employed  by  ministers  who  are 
having  the  largest  measure  of  success 
reveals  the  fact  that  their  Sunday  night 
services  are  almost  without  exception 
evangelistic.  Furthermore,  the  same 
investigation  shows  very  clearly  that 
the  preachers  themselves  have  a  holy 
passion  for  the  conversion  of  men  and 
women  from  sin.  They  beheve  in  the 
importance  of  the  service  and  have  an 
unwavering  faith  in  the  gospel  they 
preach. 

Several  years  ago,  the  Hon.  Albert 
J.  Beveridge  wrote  an  article  for  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post  entitled,  "The 
Young  Man  and  the  Pulpit."  In  the 
course  of  the  article  the  author  referred 
157 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

to  a  conversation  which  he  had  one  day 
with  a  friend  who  was  a  journahst  of 
ripe  years,  highly  educated,  widely  ex- 
perienced, and  acquainted  with  men  and 
life.  The  friend  had  just  returned  from 
church,  and  upon  approaching  Mr. 
Beveridge,  said:  "I  have  just  come 
from  church  and  I  am  tired  and  disap- 
pointed. I  went  to  hear  a  sermon  and 
I  listened  to  a  lecture.  I  went  to  wor- 
ship and  I  was  merely  entertained.  The 
preacher  was  a  brilliant  man,  and  his 
address  was  an  intellectual  treat,  but  I 
did  not  go  to  church  to  hear  a  profes- 
sional lecturer.  When  I  want  merely 
to  be  entertained  I  will  go  to  the 
theater.  But  I  do  not  like  to  hear  a 
preacher  principally  try  to  be  either 
orator  or  play-actor.  I  am  pleased  if 
he  is  both;  but  before  everything  else 
I  want  him  to  bear  to  me  the  Master's 
message.  I  want  the  minister  to  preach 
Christ  and  him  crucified."  This  is  the 
universal  opinion  of  mankind.  The 
world  is  hungry  for  the  message  of  our 
158 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

divine  Lord  and  Saviour.  It  does  not 
wish  to  be  argued  with  or  at,  but  it  does 
want  to  beheve.  There  is  no  excuse  for 
ministers  being  "Priests  of  Ice,"  vainly 
endeavoring  to  warm  the  souls  of  men. 
They  should  be  flaming  heralds  of  the 
divine  truth. 

Fourth,  He  who  really  succeeds  as 
a  "fisher  of  men"  will  Hve  so  close  to 
the  Master  and  will  believe  so  implicitly 
in  his  power  to  save  that  men  will  see 
in  him  the  Christ.  In  that  relationship 
self  will  be  eliminated  and  Christ  will 
be  all  in  all. 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  my  privilege 
to  be  associated  with  Gipsy  Smith  in 
evangelistic  services  in  Seattle,  Wash- 
ington. I  asked  him  to  tell  me  some- 
thing about  his  boyhood  life,  and  he  re- 
lated the  following  incident.  He  said: 
"You  know  I  was  the  son  of  a  gipsy 
and  was  very  fond  of  fishing.  I  knew 
the  streams  and  I  knew  the  holes  in  the 
streams  where  the  fish  were.  My  rod 
was  a  hickory  limb ;  my  fishing  line  bits 
159 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

of  twine  tied  together,  and  my  hook 
was  a  pin  which  I  heated  in  the  forge 
and  made  serve  my  purpose.  I  was 
never  happier  than  when  I  was  fishing. 
If  the  fish  did  not  bite  very  well,  I 
would  'tickle'  the  stream."  He  ex- 
plained that  this  was  simply  placing  the 
hand  in  the  water  and  whipping  it  from 
side  to  side  which  would  frighten  the 
fish  up  the  stream  to  the  particular  hole 
where  he  was  sure  some  of  them  would 
go.  He  continued  his  story,  saying:  "I 
was  fishing  on  one  occasion  close  to  a 
big  tree  and  was  having  fine  luck  when 
an  English  gentleman,  dressed  in  a 
most  wonderful  sportsman's  suit,  ap- 
proached me.  His  suit  had  wonderful 
pockets  and  seemed  to  be  the  last  word 
in  that  kind  of  dress.  His  rod  was  of 
fine  bamboo  with  silver  mountings  and 
he  used  a  silken  line.  He  said  to  me, 
'My  boy,  can  you  tell  me  where  I  can 
drop  my  line  and  catch  fish?'  "  The 
gipsy  said  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye:  "I 
knew  there  was  a  big  tree  about  a  mile 
160 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

up  the  stream  and  I  recommended  that 
he  go  up  to  that  tree  to  fish,  for  I  was 
very  anxious  to  get  him  away  from  me." 
After  quite  a  while  the  man  returned 
and  was  very  indignant  when  he  found 
that  the  gipsy  boy  had  caught  a  large 
string  of  fish  while  he  had  been  unable 
to  catch  anything.  He  then  explained 
to  the  gipsy  how  he  had  gone  to  the 
very  place  to  which  he  had  been  directed 
and  that  he  had  followed  his  instruc- 
tions to  the  very  letter,  saying,  "Why 
is  it  I  could  catch  nothing  while  you 
have  caught  this  large  string  of  fish 
with  your  poor  rod  and  line?"  The 
gipsy  lad  looked  up  into  the  face  of 
the  man  and  said,  "Say,  mister,  if  you 
want  to  catch  fish,  you  must  keep  your- 
self out  of  sight.  Fish  never  will  bite 
if  they  see  a  thing  like  you."  The  same 
principle  holds  good  in  fishing  for  men. 
If  the  preacher  exalts  himself  above  his 
Lord,  if  he  endeavors  to  impress  his 
hearers  with  his  scholarship,  his  learn- 
ing or  his  eloquence,  rather  than  with  a 
161 


EVANGELISM 

supreme  desire  to  see  men  and  women 
surrender  to  Jesus  Christ,  he  will  mis- 
erably fail.  But  if  the  master  passion 
of  his  life  be  the  salvation  of  the  lost, 
then  Christ  will  be  exalted  and  the 
preacher  will  discover  that  the  Sunday 
night  service  offers  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity for  casting  the  net. 


162 


VI 

SAFEGUARDS  OF  EVAN- 
GELISM 


VI 

SAFEGUARDS  OF  EVAN- 
GELISM 

There  are  three  safeguards  of  evan- 
gelism that  are  absolutely  essential  if 
the  church  is  to  remain  true  to  her  evan- 
gehstic  mission.  They  are  the  Christian 
home,  the  Christian  school,  and  the 
Christian  ministry. 

The  Christian  Home 

Cobden  said,  "The  foundation  stone 
of  national  prosperity  is  the  hearth- 
stone." The  church,  state,  and  civil 
government,  school  and  hospital,  fac- 
tory and  workshop,  and  many  other  of 
the  noblest  institutions  of  the  world 
root  back  into  the  home.  It  is,  there- 
fore, of  the  highest  importance  that 
the  home  be  kept  pure  and  strong  and 
true  to  the  highest  Christian  ideals. 

If  it  be  a  fact  that  in  the  home  our 
165 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

noblest  institutions  had  their  beginning, 
then  the  home  must  be  protected  and 
safeguarded  with  the  greatest  care. 
There  are  certain  grave  perils  threat- 
ening the  American  home  to-day  which 
if  not  checked  can  have  but  one  result 
and  that  is  the  dethronement  of  the 
home. 

The  complex  organization  of  society 
is  making  deep  inroads  in  the  home  life 
of  the  American  people.  Business  and 
labor  crowd  the  morning  hours,  making 
it  necessary  for  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold to  leave  early  and  to  return  late. 
The  exactions  of  social  life  create  an 
utterly  abnormal  condition,  rendering 
it  almost  impossible  for  the  entire 
family  ever  to  be  together  throughout 
a  whole  evening.  When  mothers  be- 
come so  absorbed  in  club  life  that  they 
neglect  the  interest  of  their  children  and 
the  sacred  duties  of  the  family  circle, 
they  take  the  very  heart  out  of  the 
home.  The  various  substitutes  which 
society  is  offering  for  the  home,  such 
166 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

as  the  lodge  and  the  club,  make  it  more 
and  more  difficult  for  the  home  to  re- 
main Christian  in  the  real  sense  of  the 
term.  That  there  is  a  legitimate  place 
for  these  things  is  readily  admitted,  but 
when  a  man  or  a  woman  permits  these 
things  to  interfere  with  their  sacred 
obligations  to  the  home,  they  are  un- 
true to  their  trust  and  become  a  peril 
to  the  welfare  of  society  and  the  nation 
itself. 

More  and  more  is  the  moving-picture 
theater  coming  in  competition  with  the 
home.  It  is  now  quite  the  custom  to 
turn  to  the  "movie"  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  guests.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
club  and  the  lodge,  it  is  readily  admitted 
that  there  is  a  place  for  this  sort  of 
thing.  The  moving-picture  theater  is 
here,  and  it  is  here  to  stay.  It  can  be 
made  to  serve  a  noble  purpose.  But 
when  the  "movie"  becomes  a  substitute 
for  the  home  in  the  matter  of  entertain- 
ment, the  influence  of  the  home  is 
thereby  greatly  weakened. 
167 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

Sunday  is  becoming  more  and  more 
a  day  of  playing  golf,  for  automobile 
parties,  visiting,  and  recreation.  Al- 
ready it  is  regarded  by  vast  numbers 
of  people  as  a  holiday  and  not  a  holy 
day.  In  all  such  matters  many  Chris- 
tian people  have  become  very  lax,  so 
that  he  who  endeavors  to  make  the  home 
a  sanctuary  and  Sunday  a  day  of  rest 
and  of  worship,  is  regarded  either  as 
a  "queer"  individual  or  a  "religious 
crank."  To  those  familiar  with  modern 
tendencies  and  conditions  this  is  not 
overdrawn. 

All  of  these  things  are  having  a  very 
definite  effect  upon  the  Christian  home. 
Church  attendance  has  fallen  off  be- 
cause the  church  is  not  exalted  in  the 
home.  The  family  altar  has  been 
abandoned  to  an  alarming  extent  and 
the  invoking  of  the  divine  blessing  at 
the  dinner  table  is  heard  only  when  the 
preacher  is  present  as  an  invited  guest. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in  multi- 
tudes of  Christian  homes,  if  the  father 
168 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

or  mother  were  to  ask  "Grace"  at  the 
table,  the  children  would  sit  with  open- 
eyed  wonder  and  amazement.  That 
home  where  the  Bible  is  seldom,  if  ever, 
read  in  the  family  circle,  where  prayer 
is  almost  never  heard,  and  where  con- 
versation on  religious  topics  is  un- 
known, cannot  have  a  very  pronounced 
Christian  atmosphere.  When  reHgion 
breaks  down  in  the  home  one  of  the  sure 
bulwarks  of  evangelism  breaks  down 
with  it.  In  many  of  our  Christian 
homes  there  is  often  an  easy  and  un- 
gracious criticism  of  the  church  and  the 
ministry.  The  ministry,  although  a 
holy  calling,  is  human  and  by  no  means 
free  from  fault.  There  is  a  criticism 
that  is  sympathetic  and  helpful.  It  is 
made  in  the  spirit  of  love  and  with  a 
breaking  heart.  There  is  another  kind 
of  criticism,  however,  that  bears  all  the 
marks  of  unfriendHness  and  even  of 
hostility.  It  is  not  always  intentional, 
and  to  make  this  charge  against  some 
critics  of  the  church  would  be  a  shock 
169 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

to  them.  Nevertheless,  there  is  much 
criticism  in  the  home,  both  of  the  church 
and  of  the  preacher,  that  can  have  but 
one  effect  on  children  and  young  people 
and  that  is  to  alienate  them  not  only 
from  the  church  but  from  religion  as 
well.  Unkind  and  unfriendly  criticism 
of  the  church  and  the  ministry  is  ruin- 
ous to  the  religious  life  of  the  home. 
The  Christian  home  should  be  a  great 
evangelizing  center.  Christ  should  be 
exalted  in  such  a  natural  and  yet  in 
such  a  definite  manner  that  the  boy  and 
girl  should  be  unable  to  remember  a 
time  when  the  Bible  was  not  read  and 
when  the  voice  of  father  or  mother  was 
not  heard  in  prayer.  Our  young  people 
need  to  be  taught  loyalty  to  the  church, 
respect  for  the  ministry  and  devotion 
to  the  ideals  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  if  our  homes  are  to  furnish  re- 
cruits for  the  ministry  and  mission  field. 
There  is  a  duty  resting  upon  the 
church  and  the  ministry  in  relation  to 
the  home  that  cannot  be  overlooked.  I 
170 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

refer  to  the  kind  of  evangelism  to  which 
the  church  gives  its  sanction  and  ap- 
proval. If  the  home  is  to  back  up  and 
support  evangehsm,  preachers  and 
churches  must  see  to  it  that  the  evan- 
gelism employed  is  both  sane  and  safe. 
The  Christian  Church  simply  must  set 
herself  steadfastly  against  those  evan- 
gelistic movements,  the  chief  purpose 
of  which  is  to  enrich  the  "professional 
evangelist"  under  whose  leadership  the 
"campaign"  is  conducted.  There  is  too 
much  wild-fire  evangehsm  for  the 
church  to  be  careless  at  this  point. 
Large  numbers  of  free-lance  evan- 
gehsts  roam  over  the  country  building 
up  personal  fortunes  at  the  expense  of 
the  church.  Many  of  them  would  com- 
mand very  small  salaries  in  the  pas- 
torate. They  are  cheap  imitators  of 
those  men  who  are  really  called  of  God 
to  be  evangelists  and  who  do  accom- 
phsh  a  great  work.  They  are  usually 
extremists,  who  pride  themselves  on 
their  vulgarity  and  who  boast  of  the 
171 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

unusual,  undignified,  and  unbecoming 
methods  employed  by  them  for  "getting 
the  crowd."  These  are  they  who  bring 
the  fair  name  of  the  church  into  dis- 
repute and  cause  the  sinful  and  godless 
to  scorn  the  profession  of  Christian 
people. 

The  church  must  safeguard  this 
point,  and  in  so  doing  will  make  a  more 
convincing  appeal  for  the  support  of 
evangelism  in  the  home.  Thank  God 
for  the  rich  contribution  the  Christian 
home  has  made  and  is  still  making  in 
supplying  young  men  and  women  for 
the  ministry,  mission  field,  and  for 
various  other  lines  of  Christian  service. 
Furthermore,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury had  it  not  been  for  the  gifts  of  sons 
and  daughters  to  the  ministry  and  mis- 
sion field  made  by  parsonage  homes,  the 
church  would  again  and  again  have 
been  in  a  most  sorry  plight.  It  would 
be  well  if  there  might  sweep  over  the 
church  a  revival  of  the  reading  of  "The 
172 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  by  Robert 
Burns.  To  read  again  that  great  poem, 
would  give  a  new  appreciation  of  the 
Christian  home.  It  exalts  the  home  and 
tells  so  wonderfully  of  the  place  that 
love  and  faith  and  prayer  and  God  must 
have  in  it  if  it  is  to  be  indeed  Christian. 
The  cotter's  prayer  is  subhme.  He  sees 
the  family  circle  unbroken.  As  yet  it 
is  unstained  by  sin,  and  the  cry  of  his 
heart  is  that  it  may  ever  be  so. 

"Then  kneeling  down  to  Heaven's  Eternal 
King, 
The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband 
prays : 
Hope    'springs     exulting    on    triumphant 
wing,' 
That  thus  they  all  shall  meet  in  future 

days: 
There  ever  bask  in  uncreated  rays, 
No  more  to  sigh,  or  shed  the  bitter  tear. 

Together  hymning  their  Creator's  praise, 
In  such  society,  yet  still  more  dear; 
While  circling  Time  moves  round  in  an 
eternal  sphere." 
173 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

It  has  been  well  said — "God  at  the  fire- 
side is  the  guarantee  of  a  nation's  glory 
and  permanence,"  and  it  might  well  be 
added  the  glory  and  permanence  also 
of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

Let  the  family  altar  be  rebuilt,  let 
the  Bible  be  read  in  the  family  circle, 
let  reverence  for  the  church  and  the 
ministry  be  instilled,  by  precept  and  ex- 
ample, in  the  minds  of  the  young,  and 
in  less  than  a  generation  the  Christian 
home  will  become  a  bulwark  of  evan- 
gelism in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term, 
and  young  men  and  women  in  increas- 
ingly large  numbers  will  offer  them- 
selves for  definite  Christian  service. 

The  Christian  School 

The  next  outstanding  safeguard  of 
evangelism  is  the  Christian  school. 

History  reveals  the  fact  that  the 
church  has  always  been  the  conservator 
of  education.  The  learning  of  Greece 
and  Rome  was  preserved  by  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
174 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

reason  for  the  establishment  of  colleges 
and  universities  in  Europe  and  America 
was  that  the  church  might  be  furnished 
with  adequate  leadership.  The  leading 
institutions  of  learning  of  both  of  these 
countries  owe  their  very  existence  to 
the  Christian  Church.  The  history  of 
the  American  college  is  most  interest- 
ing. It  divides  itself  into  three  distinct 
periods.  The  first  begins  with  the  foun- 
dation of  Harvard  College  in  1636  and 
closes  with  the  opening  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War;  the  second  begins  with 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  and 
continues  through  the  first  quarter  of 
the  last  century;  and  the  third  dates 
from  that  period  to  the  present  time. 
These  periods,  or  divisions,  which  mark 
the  development  of  the  American  col- 
lege have  been  called  the  Ecclesiastical, 
the  Political,  and  the  Human,  and  in- 
dicate the  source  whence  certain  of  the 
stronger  influences  of  each  period  arose. 
The  famous  ordinance  of  1787  for 
the  organization  of  the  Northwest  Ter- 
175 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

ritory  used  the  expression:  "Religion, 
morality,  and  knowledge  being  essen- 
tial to  good  government,  schools  and 
the  means  of  education  shall  forever 
be  encouraged."  This  statement  has 
been  quoted  as  the  most  advanced  in 
time  in  relation  to  human  progress. 
We  have  passed  far  beyond  that  posi- 
tion to-day,  however,  for  we  now  insist 
that  education  shall  be  provided  for 
every  one  of  school  age.  Furthermore, 
we  insist  that  all  of  school  age  shall  be 
educated. 

During  the  development  of  the 
American  college  its  influence  has  been 
greatly  enlarged.  Although  it  began 
as  an  institution  for  the  training  of 
ministers  of  the  gospel  chiefly,  its  pur- 
pose has  so  broadened  that  to-day  its 
aim  is  to  train  men  and  women  for  a 
well-rounded  and  full-orbed  life.  It 
now  seeks  to  train  men  not  only  for  the 
various  professions  and  specialized 
forms  of  service,  but  for  life  in  every 
sphere  of  activity.  That  it  has  entered 
176 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

into  the  intellectual  life  of  the  people 
may  be  seen  when  we  recall  the  fact  that 
it  has  helped  to  train  not  only  sixty 
per  cent  of  America's  leading  preach- 
ers, but  that  it  has  aided  in  the  train- 
ing of  one  third  of  our  statesmen,  more 
than  a  third  of  our  best  authors,  almost 
fifty  per  cent  of  our  leading  physicians, 
fully  one  half  of  our  better-known 
lawyers,  and  considerably  more  than 
one  half  of  our  most  conspicuous  edu- 
cators. 

In  the  fifty  years  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century  more  than  sixteen  thou- 
sand men  graduated  from  eight  princi- 
pal colleges  of  New  England,  of  which 
number  more  than  four  thousand  be- 
came ministers.  No  one  will  question 
the  importance  of  such  a  contribution 
to  society  and  the  world.  Unfortu- 
nately, few  men  graduating  from  these 
same  institutions  to-day  choose  the 
Christian  ministry  as  their  lifework. 
More  unfortunate  still  is  the  fact  that 
in  a  number  of  these  colleges  and  uni- 
177 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

versities  religion  is  given  very  slight 
recognition. 

The  growth  and  development  of 
State  universities  during  the  past  fif- 
teen or  twenty  years  has  been  nothing 
less  than  phenomenal,  and  they  are  as- 
suming increasing  jurisdiction  over 
many  of  the  private  schools  and  are 
giving  more  and  more  attention  to  in- 
dustrial and  technical  education.  It  is 
a  significant  fact  that  there  are  more 
Methodist  students  in  State  universities 
than  there  are  in  all  the  schools  sup- 
ported by  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  These  State  schools  are  sup- 
ported by  the  taxing  of  the  people. 
This  is  right  and  necessary.  The  ques- 
tion arises,  however,  as  to  what  should 
be  the  attitude  of  the  church  toward 
State  universities.  I  reply  unhesitat- 
ingly that  it  should  be  both  friendly  and 
sincere.  There  is  no  reason  why  the 
denominational  college  and  the  State 
university  should  not  be  on  the  best  of 
terms. 

178 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

President  Guy  Potter  Benton,  of  the 
University  of  Vermont,  has  well  said: 
"We  all  want  to  be  loyal  to  our  own 
Methodist  colleges,  but  the  fact  remains 
that  there  are  more  Methodist  students 
in  the  State  universities  than  there  are 
in  all  the  schools  supported  by  the 
church.  .  .  .  Therefore,  unless  the  reli- 
gious interests  of  these  young  people 
are  carefully  safeguarded  and  directed, 
there  may  not  only  be  a  loss  to  the 
church  but  one  to  society  as  well." 
Many  of  the  Protestant  churches  are 
giving  commendable  attention  to  the 
very  question  mentioned  by  President 
Benton,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  is  now  studying  that  problem 
very  carefully  in  relation  to  her  own 
students.  More  and  more  the  church 
must  feel  its  responsibility  for  the  reli- 
gious welfare  of  her  students  who  are 
in  State  universities. 

Fully  appreciating  the  worth  and 
value  of  the  State  university  to  the  wel- 
fare of  society,  we  cannot  overlook  the 
179 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

fact  that  religion  has  a  hard  time  of  it 
in  such  institutions.  As  a  rule,  the 
atmosphere  of  our  State  universities  is 
anything  but  Christian.  While  we  do 
find  members  of  the  faculties  who  are 
devoted  Christians  and  loyal  to  the 
things  for  which  the  Christian  Church 
stands,  it  must  be  admitted  that  their 
numbers  are  comparatively  few. 

A  Hindoo  student  in  one  of  the  great 
State  universities  of  America  once  said 
to  me,  "This  university  is  as  unchris- 
tian as  the  one  I  attended  in  India  be- 
fore coming  to  this  country."  He  may 
not  have  been  fair  in  his  judgment. 
He  may  have  misrepresented  the  real 
situation,  but,  nevertheless,  his  remark 
is  significant. 

In  Germany  we  have  had  a  shining 
example  of  what  may  come  to  the  world 
through  a  false  system  of  teaching. 
Whatever  historians  may  assign  as  the 
real  cause  of  the  great  world  war, 
whether  it  be  the  brusqueness  of  the 
Austro-German  diplomacy,  which 
180 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

"snapped  the  strained  relation  between 
the  Alliance  and  the  Entente,"  or 
whether  there  shall  be  mentioned  the  in- 
fluence of  powerful  economic  interests 
which  either  led  to  international  quar- 
rels, or  stood  to  make  great  gains  by 
the  war,  one  thing  is  certain — the  de- 
structive influence  of  the  German  ideal- 
istic school  will  not  be  omitted.  If  war 
is  to  be  avoided  in  the  future,  our 
schools  and  universities  must  avoid 
those  metaphysics  from  which  war  pro- 
ceeds. 

The  present  tendency  is  to  ignore 
religion  in  modern  education.  Some 
time  ago  there  appeared  in  the  Zion's 
Herald  an  article  containing  the  results 
of  certain  investigations  made  by  Pro- 
fessor James  Henry  Leuba,  of  Bryn 
Mawr  College.  These  investigations 
revealed  the  fact  that  of  the  more  emi- 
nent among  the  teachers  of  the  youth 
of  America  only  twenty-seven  per  cent 
believe  in  the  existence  of  God,  and  but 
thirty-five  per  cent  believe  in  the  im- 
181 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

mortality  of  the  soul.  If  this  is  even 
approximately  correct,  it  is  enough  to 
make  the  light  heart  sad  and  the  stout- 
est quake  with  fear.  For  years  many 
of  the  most  eminent  teachers  in  Ger- 
many denied  the  fundamentals  of  reli- 
gion. The  result  was  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  people  was  stifled,  the  false  phi- 
losophies of  the  German  schools  were 
accepted,  and  the  disaster  that  has 
drenched  Europe  in  blood  became  in- 
evitable. 

At  the  World  Missionary  Confer- 
ence, held  in  Edinburgh  in  1910,  Pro- 
fessor M.  E.  Saddler,  one  of  the  great- 
est educational  authorities,  said,  "The 
educational  science  of  Europe  and 
America  has  paid  far  too  little  heed  to 
the  experience  of  the  mission  field." 
In  referring  to  the  contribution  that 
educational  missions  make  to  the  pres- 
ent problem  of  the  West,  where  educa- 
tion is  becoming  more  and  more  organ- 
ized, and  dependent  on  public  money, 
he  said,  "How  are  we  to  preserve  for  it, 
182 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

amid  all  the  conflicts  of  belief,  the  power 
of  a  spiritual  ideal,  without  which  no 
education  can  do  that  which  we  here  feel 
to  be  its  prime  and  its  most  lasting 
work."  This  great  educationist  further 
said,  "The  great  danger  of  the  highly 
organized  systems  of  modern  education 
in  Europe  is  that,  being  by  far  intellec- 
tual, they  lead  to  moral  skepticism." 
Although  these  words  were  spoken  a 
decade  ago,  they  are  full  of  meaning 
and  importance  for  to-day  and  apply 
not  only  to  Europe  but  equally  so  to 
America. 

Recently  in  Japan  one  of  the  lead- 
ing officials  of  that  country  and  one  of 
the  effective  promoters  of  modern  edu- 
cation in  Japan,  said,  "We  have  already 
passed  beyond  the  realm  of  religion; 
all  religion  is  superstition,  and  by 
adopting  modern  education  we  lay 
asid>e  our  old  superstitions;  we  rise 
above  religion  in  education."  If  Pro- 
fessor Leuba's  survey  reveals  the  real 
situation  among  America's  leading 
183 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

teachers,  we  may  well  ponder  the  future 
of  our  nation  unless  the  present  tend- 
ency is  counteracted  by  distinctively 
Christian  influences.  The  task  of  the 
Christian  Church  is  not  lightly  to  be 
estimated  under  these  conditions.  Here 
is  the  reason  for  the  Christian  school 
and  college  and  here  is  the  task.  Reli- 
gion must  be  given  a  very  definite  place 
in  modern  education,  and  only  the 
Christian  college  can  do  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
churches  which  have  been  most  influ- 
ential in  the  development  of  American 
life  have  been  those  which  have  placed 
great  emphasis  upon  the  worth  of  a  col- 
lege-bred ministry.  The  founder  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  a  uni- 
'^^ersity  man,  and  that  church  has  al- 
ways been  the  champion  of  the  Chris- 
tian school  and  college.  It  is  a  very 
significant  fact  that  her  influence  has 
increased  very  largely  in  proportion  as 
she  has  had  a  well  developed  system  of 
schools  and  coUeges.  She  is  second  to 
184 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

none  of  the  great  denominations  in  her 
emphasis  upon  Christian  education. 

In  endeavoring  to  fulfill  her  mission 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  must 
see  to  it  that  her  institutions  of  learning 
shall  be  kept  Christian.  There  is  no 
denying  the  fact  that  dm^ing  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century  the  educational 
system  of  America  has  felt  the  blight  of 
German  rationalism.  Large  numbers 
of  our  most  eminent  scholars  have  gone 
to  Germany  to  pursue  their  studies  and 
for  research  purposes.  They  have  re- 
turned in  many  instances  thoroughly 
committed  to  the  German  school  of  de- 
structive criticism.  The  entire  educa- 
tional system  of  America  has  felt  the 
effect  of  this,  and  the  denominational 
schools  have  by  no  means  escaped.  Not 
infrequently  has  it  been  true  that  teach- 
ers have  been  employed  in  Christian  in- 
stitutions of  learning  who  have  made 
no  profession  of  religion  at  all,  others 
have  been  merely  nominally  Christian, 
while  still  others  have  exerted  an  influ- 
185 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

ence  over  students  that  has  been  utterly- 
destructive  of  faith.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  a  betrayal  of  trust,  for  Christian 
institutions  of  learning  to  employ  as 
teachers  those  who  are  opposed  to,  or 
unsympathetic  with.  Christian  teaching 
and  doctrine.  Christian  schools  and 
colleges  must  give  careful  attention  to 
the  matter  of  religion  in  education,  and 
how  can  this  be  done  unless  the  teachers 
themselves  are  Christian? 

There  never  was  a  time  when 
America  needed  Christian  schools  and 
colleges  more  than  now.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  care  be  given 
to  the  selection  of  teachers  and  profes- 
sors. No  one  who  is  not  a  believer  in 
God  and  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  and 
no  one  who  is  not  sure  of  his  beliefs, 
should  have  a  place  upon  a  faculty  of 
any  really  Christian  institution  of 
learning.  This  has  not  always  been  the 
case,  nor  is  it  at  the  present  time.  Noth- 
ing is  more  important  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  sane  and  safe  evangelism  than 
186 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

that  our  institutions  of  learning  be  kept 
Christian,  and  this  cannot  be  done  un- 
less the  teachers  are  definitely  Chris- 
tian. 

The  Christian  college  has  been  the 
conservator  of  religious  hfe  and 
thought,  and  has  also  saved  the  church 
from  certain  fanatical  extremes  in  reli- 
gion, which  otherwise  would  have 
brought  the  church  into  merited  con- 
tempt. Too  much  cannot  be  said  in 
praise  of  what  the  Christian  college  has 
done  for  the  Christian  ministry.  For 
years  the  church  has  been  dependent 
upon  the  denominational  college  for 
her  ministers  and  missionaries.  In  the 
future  she  will  be  more  dependent  upon 
the  Christian  college  for  her  leaders 
than  she  ever  has  been  in  the  past. 

In  the  remaking  of  the  world,  the 
church  school  must  be  given  an  increas- 
ingly large  place,  but  it  must  be  kept 
positively  and  potently  Christian.  It 
is  a  safeguard  of  evangelism.  It  is  the 
handmaiden  of  the  church;  it  is  the  re- 
187 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

cruiting  station  for  leadership  that  will 
hasten  the  conquest  of  the  world  for 
Christ. 

The  Christian  Ministry 

There  is  yet  another  safeguard  of 
evangelism,  and  that  is  the  ministry  it- 
self. 

War  tests  all  things.  The  recent 
world  war  tested  the  Christian  ministry 
as  severely,  if  not  more  severely,  than 
anything  else.  The  result  will  surely 
be  a  stronger,  purer,  and  more  sacri- 
ficial ministry.  In  the  very  nature  of 
the  case  it  cannot  be  otherwise. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the 
Christian  Church  is  not  as  evangelistic 
as  it  once  was.  Large  numbers  of 
preachers  of  all  the  churches  have  lost 
their  relish  for  evangelism.  The  char- 
acter of  their  preaching  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  go  about  the  King's  busi- 
ness furnish  ample  proof  of  the  correct- 
ness of  this  statement.  The  vast  sums 
of  money  invested  by  the  Christian 
188 


A 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

Church  for  the  salvation  of  the  world 
is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  number 
of  converts  and  accessions  reported  by 
the  churches  from  year  to  year.  It  is 
a  significant  fact  that  the  church  has 
made  her  greatest  gains  in  recent  years 
in  foreign  mission  fields  where  evan- 
gelism is  most  pronounced.  No 
thoughtful  person  can  fail  to  appreci- 
ate or  be  thankful  for  the  great  social 
awakening  of  the  church.  Her  philan- 
thropic, educational,  and  benevolent 
undertakings  command  the  highest  ad- 
miration of  all  thoughtful  people. 
When,  however,  we  study  the  growth 
of  the  Christian  Church,  during  the  past 
decade,  as  reported  in  the  year  books 
of  the  various  denominations,  there  is 
nothing  to  boast  of,  but,  rather,  every 
reason  for  humiliation  and  contrition 
of  heart. 

Much  of  modern  preaching  lacks  pas- 
sion.      Platitudes      and      stereotyped 
phrases  that  are  hoary  with  age  and 
empty  of  meaning  will  not  suffice  to 
189 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

bring  conviction  for  sin  to  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  modern  man. 

The  chief  reason  why  the  Christian 
Church,  especially  that  of  America, 
does  not  possess  more  evangelistic  zeal 
than  it  does  to-day  is  because  of  the 
influence  German  rationalism  has  had 
upon  it.  No  effort  has  been  spared  by 
the  German  school  to  rule  the  super- 
natural Christ  out  of  court.  There  is 
no  denying  the  fact  that  this  school  has 
set  itself  against  the  truth  as  revealed 
in  the  Scriptures  of  a  truly  super- 
natural divine  Christ.  Similar  efforts 
have  also  been  made  to  rob  the  Bible 
of  the  supernatural,  making  it  merely 
a  collection  of  tradition  and  folklore. 
So  widespread  was  the  influence  of 
the  German  school  of  thought  that 
not  only  Europe  felt  the  blight  of 
it  but  America  also.  History  contains 
no  more  subtle  propaganda  against  the 
Christian  faith  than  this.  It  has  found 
its  way  into  the  religious  literature  of 
all  Christian  lands  and  of  all  Christian 
190 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

churches.  The  effect  has  been  a  very 
noticeable  drift  toward  Unitarianism 
in  certain  sections  of  the  church.  For 
years  American  books,  newspapers,  and 
magazines  have  carried  the  message 
that  only  a  humanitarian  Christ  can 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  modern  in- 
tellect. This  explains  why  the  church 
has  lost  her  relish  for  evangehsm. 
There  can  be  no  other  result.  When 
the  ministry  loses  its  vital  grip  on  the 
deityship  of  Jesus  Christ  and  upon  the 
Bible  as  the  inspired  Word  of  God, 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  passion 
for  souls.  The  very  heart  of  evangel- 
ism is  the  deityship  of  Jesus  Christ. 
When  that  is  doubted  or  denied,  evan- 
gelism is  gone. 

If  the  Christian  ministry  is  to  retain 
its  apostolic  enthusiasm  for  the  con- 
version of  men  and  women  from  sin, 
her  theological  schools  must  be  great 
centers  of  evangehstic  power  and  pas- 
sion. We  do  not  disparage  scholarship. 
We  dare  not  shrink  from  scientific  in- 
191 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

vestigation.  Theological  students  must 
be  made  familiar  with  modern  life  and 
thought.  This  is  not  to  be  accom- 
plished, however,  at  the  expense  of  a 
definite  and  genuine  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  personal  Saviour.  It  is  not 
to  be  brought  about  by  the  abandon- 
ment of  a  holy  enthusiasm  for  the  spirit- 
ual regeneration  of  a  sinful  world.  If 
the  Christian  ministry  of  the  future  is 
to  be  evangelistic,  the  teaching  in  the 
schools  of  the  prophets  must  be  positive 
in  character.  Classroom  instruction 
must  bring  the  student  face  to  face  with 
scientific  thought  and  achievement,  but 
never  at  the  sacrifice  of  those  things 
which  are  fundamental  to  the  Christian 
faith. 

With  the  collapse  of  the  German  em- 
pire there  must  also  go  Germany's 
leadership  and  domination  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  religious  life  of  the  world. 
The  failure  of  the  German  educational 
system  will  be  followed  by  a  new  inter- 
est in  the  study  of  the  Bible  as  the 
192 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

revealed  Word  of  God.  The  new  text- 
ual criticism  will  be  both  scholarly  and 
reverent,  and  there  will  not  be  charged 
against  it  a  purposeful  endeavor  to  de- 
stroy the  foundations  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

Our  theological  schools  must  prepare 
the  future  ministers  of  the  church  for 
the  great  task  of  remaking  the  world. 
To  that  end  they  must  strengthen  the 
faith  of  the  students  and  not  weaken  it. 
The  integrity  of  the  Scriptures  must  be 
insisted  upon  and  not  questioned.  Jesus 
Christ,  the  divine  Son  of  God,  must  be 
exalted  in  all  the  relationships  of  life 
with  a  moral  urgency  that  will  carry 
with  it  no  shadow  of  doubt. 

Furthermore,  if  evangelism  is  to  be 
retained  in  the  new  day,  it  will  be  at 
the  point  where  the  candidate  for  the 
ministry  enters  into  the  full  obligations 
and  privileges  of  his  holy  calling.  This 
is  positively  vital.  No  man  should  be 
admitted  into  the  ministry  of  any  Chris- 
tian church  who  does  not  do  so  accept- 
193 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

ing  fully  and  freely  the  doctrinal  stand- 
ards of  the  church  he  seeks  to  enter. 

Where  there  are  courses  of  study,  as 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
which  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  is 
required  to  pass  before  being  admitted, 
it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the 
books  be  selected  with  the  greatest  care. 
Any  book  that  is  at  variance  with  the 
accepted  doctrines  and  teachings  of  the 
church  should  be  eliminated.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  would  do 
well  to  safeguard  her  sacred  interests 
at  this  point. 

An  intelligent  and  broad-minded 
world  traveler  once  said  to  the  writer, 
"Methodism  in  some  quarters  is  show- 
ing a  marked  tendency  toward  Uni- 
tarianism."  When  challenged  to  pro- 
duce proof  of  such  a  statement  he  said, 
"Analyze  carefully  the  literature  your 
church  is  producing  and  you  will  find 
ample  proof  of  what  I  say."  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  gentleman's  statement 
is  not  wholly  correct.  I  wish  it  were 
194 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

wholly  wrong.  The  Conference  course 
of  study  was  never  intended  to  take  the 
place  of  a  college  course.  Its  chief  pur- 
pose is  not  that  of  furnishing  an  edu- 
cation, but,  rather,  of  ascertaining 
whether  or  not  the  candidate  is  suffi- 
ciently famihar  with  the  doctrines  and 
pohty  of  the  church  to  warrant  his  being 
intrusted  with  the  sacred  obligations 
and  privileges  of  the  ministry.  If  the 
doctrinal  standards  of  Methodism  are 
not  safeguarded  in  the  Conference 
course  of  study  to-day,  it  will  not  be 
more  than  a  generation  before  Meth- 
odism will  have  lost  her  power  as  an 
evangehzing  agency.  For  the  welfare 
of  the  church  of  the  future  we  must 
safeguard  the  evangelism  of  the  church 
of  to-day. 

What  was  it  that  brought  the  remedy 
for  the  unbehef  and  spiritual  evils  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  Reformation 
period?  It  was  not  scholarship  and  it 
was  not  science.  The  Church  of  Christ 
was  the  victim  of  the  basest  kind  of 
195 


EVANGELISM  IN  THE 

political  influences  and  was  herself 
guilty  of  the  most  unspeakable  vices. 
When  apostolic  simplicity  gave  way 
and  wealth  began  to  pour  into  the  lap 
of  the  church,  when  priests  began  to 
taste  the  sweets  of  luxurious  living  and 
of  power,  faith  gave  way  to  unbeHef 
and  moral  decline  set  in  irresistibly. 
That  which  brought  relief  was  the  faith- 
ful proclamation  of  the  living  gospel  of 
the  grace  of  God  by  Luther  and  his 
fellow  reformers. 

"What  rescued  the  church  from  the 
torpor  and  death  of  the  negative  of  the 
eighteenth  century?"  asks  Professor 
James  Orr.  His  answer  to  his  own 
question  is:  "The  deliverance  came,  not 
from  philosophy  or  learning,  not  even 
from  the  works  of  able  apologists  like 
Butler,  but  from  the  tides  of  the  spirit- 
ual revival  that  swept  over  Britain,  and 
were  felt  in  other  lands,  under  the 
preaching  of  such  men  as  Whitefield 
and  the  Wesleys.  This  it  was  which 
gave  evangelism  the  victory  once  more 
196 


REMAKING  OF  THE  WORLD 

over  indiflPerence  and  unbelief,  and 
breathed  the  new  breath  of  life  into  so- 
ciety, which  introduced  the  era  of  mis- 
sions to  the  heathen,  Bible  diffusion, 
home  evangehsm,  and  the  innumerable 
social  reforms  of  the  last  century.  It 
is  to  a  hke  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  upon  his  church,  and  to  the  same 
divine  energy  manifesting  itself  in  holy 
lives  and  practical  works  far  more  than 
to  learned  confutations,  however  valu- 
able these  may  be  in  their  place,  that 
we  must  look  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
forms  of  unbehef  that  lift  up  their 
heads  among  us  to-day.  The  owls  van- 
ish when  the  dayhght  reappears." 

If  the  demands  of  the  new  day  are  to 
be  met,  the  church  must  cultivate,  with- 
out cant  and  hypocrisy,  the  passion  for 
souls  that  characterized  the  early  church 
and  made  Christ  and  his  saving  grace  a 
reality  in  the  hearts  of  men.  The  Chris- 
tian home,  the  Christian  school,  the 
Christian  ministry — ^these  three  are  the 
safeguards  of  evangelism. 
197 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary   Libraries 


1    1012  01232  3129 


Date  Due 


Ap  19  'M_ 


-W^-± 


,      -c^c 


